Berlusconi: court orders villa party pictures seized

An Italian court has ruled that a collection of 5,000 photos which are said to show guests cavorting at Silvio Berlusconi's lavish villa in Sardinia should be confiscated for violating privacy laws.

The pictures, some of which reportedly show a bizarre mock "wedding" between the Italian prime minister and a young woman, were allegedly taken by a freelance photographer between 2006 and early 2009.

Spain's El Pais newspaper has already published seven of the photos, showing topless women taking outdoor showers and lying on sun loungers, and a former Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, standing naked beside a swimming pool.

Mr Berlusconi's lawyers successfully argued to a court in Tempio Pausania, northern Sardinia, that the images, which were taken with a long-range lens, were an invasion of the prime minister's privacy.

The court's decision bolstered Mr Berlusconi's attempts to have the photographs banned from publication in Italy.

But they may prove hard for his lawyers to seize – the photographer, Antonello Zappadu, claims he has sold them all to a photo agency in Colombia. More

L'Espresso said it had instructed lawyers to consider civil and criminal actions over Fascist neocon Silvio Berlusconi's remarks