Berlusconi’s party girls dressed as nuns, Obama

Silvio Berlusconi’s private disco featured women dressed not just as sexy nuns and nurses, but also as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor that the former Italian premier has accused of persecuting him.

The Moroccan woman at the centre of a sex scandal involving Berlusconi testified in court for the first time, describing how a young woman attending one of Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” parties dressed up like a nun, danced provocatively and stripped down to her underwear for the former premier.

Karima el-Mahroug took the witness stand in the trial of three former Berlusconi aides charged with recruiting her and other women for prostitution. They deny the charges.

The trial is separate from the one in which Berlusconi is charged with paying for sex with a minor — el-Mahroug herself — and trying to cover it up.

El-Mahroug, also known as Ruby, has made carefully-orchestrated statements to the media since the scandal broke, but has never publicly given sworn testimony. Both she and Berlusconi deny having had sex.

The three Berlusconi aides — Emilio Fede, an executive in Berlusconi’s media empire; Nicole Minetti, a former dental hygienist, showgirl and local politician, and talent agent Dario “Lele” Mora — are accused of recruiting women for prostitution at the parties and abetting prostitution, including of a minor.

El-Mahroug’s testimony yesterday confirmed the sexual atmosphere at Berlusconi’s infamous “bunga bunga” parties, which were filled with beautiful young women. Many of those women have said they received money from the billionaire media mogul.

, El-Mahroug said she first made contact with Berlusconi’s inner circle when she participated in a beauty contest organised by Fede in Sicily when she was 16.

She testified that she met the premier at a dinner party at Berlusconi’s on Valentine’s Day in 2010 — and that he gave her an envelope of €2,000 to €3,000, saying it was “a little help” and asking for her telephone number, which she gave him.

At that party, she said, she introduced herself as Ruby and told other guests a fake tale that she was Egyptian, that her mother was a famous Arab singer and that she was related to then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

She was 17 at the time, but had passed herself off as being 24.

The case continues.