Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi plotted to have Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi assassinated by the secret services, Italy’s Il FattoQuotidiano daily said on 13 June, sparking a heated denial from his spokesman. “In the middle of the Libyan crisis … Silvio Berlusconi made a rather unusual request to the head of the secret services: ‘Can you eliminate Qaddafi?’,” the left-wing paper said, citing “an authorised diplomatic source close to the security services.” “It appears to have been a rather naive attempt on Berlusconi’s part to resolve an embarrassing situation,” it said.
Qaddafi visited Italy several times, staying in a Bedouin tent pitched in the gardens of the Libyan embassy in Rome and hosting events with young local and Libyan beauties.He is credited by some as having invented the term “bungabunga,” later used to describe erotic parties held by Berlusconi.But Il Fatto quoted former defence minister Ignazio La Russa saying that the billionaire’s ties to Qaddafi began to embarrass him when the uprising against his former friend began in 2011.The report was immediately denied by Berlusconi’s entourage.