Death of Imane Fadil

The death of Imane Fadil occurred on 1 March 2019 in Rozzano, Italy, after the Moroccan-Italian model and key witness in the “bunga bunga” trials involving former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hospitalized for a month with unexplained symptoms. Her passing, initially treated as suspicious, prompted a homicide investigation amid concerns she may have been poisoned.^[1] The case led to a high-profile investigation and international media coverage.^[2][3][4][5]

Biography

Imane Fadil (c. 1985 – 1 March 2019) was a Moroccan-Italian model. Fadil was born in Morocco and later moved to Italy, where she pursued a career in modeling. By her mid-20s she was living in Italy and working as a model, hoping to break into the media as a sports journalist. Prior to her involvement in the Berlusconi scandal, Fadil was not widely known; she had only brief appearances on Italian television in lower-profile programs.^[6] Her background and Moroccan origin became of public interest only after she was linked to the investigations of Berlusconi’s private parties. Fadil’s entry into those social circles came via invitations to gatherings at Berlusconi’s Villa in Arcore (near Milan) around 2010–2011, when she was in her mid-20s.^[7]

Accusations against Berlusconi

Main article: Silvio Berlusconi prostitution trial

Fadil was a central witness in the Rubygate affair, the scandal revolving around Berlusconi’s evening parties commonly referred to as “bunga bunga” parties. In 2012, she testified during Berlusconi’s trial (where he was accused of paying an underage girl, Karima “Ruby” El Mahroug, for sex) and provided vivid descriptions of the events at his villa. She recounted that at one party she saw two young women dressed as nuns who performed a striptease, noting “they started to dance like the nuns of the film Sister Act, and then they took off their clothes”. On another occasion, a woman wearing an AC Milan jersey and a mask of footballer Ronaldinho stripped down to her underwear as part of the entertainment.^[8] Fadil testified that on the first night she attended, Berlusconi gave her an envelope containing €2,000 along with jewelry, saying, “Don’t be offended, but I know you women are always in need,” which she took as a form of payment for her presence. She refused to stay overnight, and alleged that the women who did remain were paid extra for sexual acts. Fadil’s testimony directly contradicted Berlusconi’s defense that these gatherings were “elegant dinners” only.^[7]

Her detailed statements made her one of only a few witnesses willing to speak openly about the sexual nature of the parties, as many other attendees had become uncooperative. According to investigators, Berlusconi had allegedly been paying a monthly stipend to numerous young women from the parties so that they would not reveal what happened at Arcore, a charge he denied.^[9] She also reported that after news of the scandal broke, she was approached by intermediaries who urged her to stay quiet. In one instance, Fadil said a mysterious man invited her to a meeting at Berlusconi’s villa and offered her money to drop her cooperation; she perceived this person to be acting on behalf of Berlusconi and possibly connected to foreign security services.^[10] Feeling threatened, she recounted the incident to prosecutors, saying she feared for her safety.^[11]

Berlusconi’s initial trial (often called the Ruby trial) concluded with his conviction in 2013, but he was ultimately acquitted on appeal in 2015 when judges ruled he could not have known Ruby was underage. However, Fadil’s revelations helped spur additional legal proceedings. She became a witness in a follow-up investigation (nicknamed Ruby ter) in which prosecutors accused Berlusconi and his lawyers of bribing witnesses (the young women from the parties) to give false testimony or withhold information. Together with two other women who had testified, Fadil sought to join the witness tampering case as a civil party, arguing that Berlusconi’s alleged corruption of witnesses had harmed her life and career. Negotiations for a settlement of their claims were reportedly attempted in late 2018, but in January 2019 a Milan court rejected Fadil’s bid to be a civil party, effectively barring her from seeking damages in that trial.^[11][8] Despite this legal setback, Fadil remained a key witness in the ongoing Ruby ter proceedings, which were still underway at the time of her death.^[12]

In an interview with il Fatto Quotidiano in 2018, she reported of sexual abuse of minors and spoke of a “strange, sinister presence” at Berlusconi's parties: “There is evil in it, I have seen it, there is Lucifer”.^[13] Before her death, Fadil had been writing a memoir about her experiences in the scandal; prosecutors obtained a copy of her unpublished manuscript as part of the inquiry.^[8] The memoir was titled I Met the Devil (Ho incontrato il diavolo) at the time of her death. The manuscript, which was obtained by Italian magistrates after her passing, was intended to provide a firsthand account of her experiences at Berlusconi’s parties.^[14][15] However, following her death, the manuscript was seized by authorities as part of the investigation into her passing, and it remains unpublished.^[16]

Death and investigation

On 29 January 2019, Imane Fadil was admitted to the Humanitas hospital in Rozzano, on the outskirts of Milan, suffering from severe abdominal pain, fatigue, and other symptoms.^[6] Over the next month, her condition deteriorated with doctors initially unable to determine the cause. Fadil herself voiced suspicions that she had been poisoned, telling her brother, friends, and her lawyer that she feared someone had administered a toxin to her.^[11][17] She remained hospitalized for about four weeks, during which standard medical tests showed no obvious pathology. On 1 March 2019, Fadil died in the hospital at the age of 33, after a protracted illness that resulted in multiple organ failure.^[18] Her death was not immediately made public by the hospital; it came to light two weeks later when Milan’s chief prosecutor, Francesco Greco, announced that an investigation had been opened into the “mysterious” death of a key witness and that homicide by poisoning was a serious suspicion. Greco noted that the treating doctors had not identified any disease that could definitively explain Fadil’s rapid decline, and he pointed out “several anomalies” in her medical record, prompting a criminal inquiry.^[8]

Investigators pursued the possibility that Fadil had been deliberately poisoned, given the context of her role in a high-profile trial. Initial toxicology screenings found unusually high levels of heavy metals in her body, including cobalt, chromium, and other elements, which fueled the speculation of poisoning.^[17] Italian media, citing anonymous sources, even reported that tests on her samples revealed a “mix of radioactive substances not normally available in commerce”, suggesting a possible exposure to radioactive material.^[12][19] However, by late March 2019, doctors announced that specialized tests on Fadil’s organs found no evidence of radioactive substances as the cause of death.^[17][20] The earlier detected metals, while present above normal levels, were not in quantities that would usually be fatal. In the absence of a clear toxicological culprit, investigators also considered an unexpected medical condition. Indeed, one hypothesis, which grew stronger over time, was that Fadil had an extremely rare form of aplastic anemia or another autoimmune disorder that caused complete bone marrow failure.^[21]

In September 2019, preliminary autopsy findings pointed toward a natural cause. Experts found indications that Fadil may have died from a rare form of aplastic anemia) that led to fatal aplastic bone marrow failure, a condition that could explain the presence of certain metals in her bloodstream due to organ breakdown.^[22] The investigation, which continued into the following year, struggled to determine how such a disease could have developed so suddenly. Ultimately, in September 2022, Milan magistrates formally closed the case on Imane Fadil’s death. The judge accepted the conclusion that no murder had occurred, concluding that Fadil died from illness.^[23]