Earl's wife 'plotted his murder to grab his £6m fortune'

Jamila M'Barek, 45, is alleged to have paid her 43-year-old brother, Mohammed M'Barek, 43, to strangle the earl.

The decomposing body of Eton and Oxford- educated Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 66, was found in hills near Theoule-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, in April 2005.

Both the M'Bareks, French Moroccans who were brought up in Tunisia, are in custody and face life imprisonment.

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Mohammed has already confessed to strangling the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury "accidentally" following a drunken argument in November 2004, but denies murdering him. Jamila denies conspiracy to murder.

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She claims she has a list of celebrity ex-lovers – including George Clooney, Bruce Willis and Bjorn Borg – ready to act as character witnesses.

During the trial in Nice, Jamila, a former nightclub hostess, will claim that her past "intimate relationships" with such rich, powerful men ensured she had no need of the earl's money. B

But Clooney, 46, Willis, 52, and tennis legend Borg, 50, have all denied knowing her and have no intention of appearing in court.

The trial judge has no powers to force them to do so.

Borg said: "I don't recognise the woman's name. I definitely will not be going to court to act as a character witness for her or anyone else."

Willis's publicist said the star could not be contacted, but added of Jamila: "I don't know of her. I've never heard that name before."

Clooney, who is at the Cannes film festival a few miles from Nice, was unavailable for comment.

Jamila claims that Lord Shaftesbury, who had a vast property portfolio including a 9,000-acre estate at Wimborne, Dorset, was a violent, sex-crazed alcoholic hooked on Viagra in the months before his death.

He had transferred his affections to a 33-year- old Moroccan nightclub hostess, Nadia Orcha, and had asked her to marry him.

Referring to Jamila's alleged celebrity boyfriends, her lawyer, Franck De Vita, said: "She was a seductress with great sexual allure and these men were very generous.

"Jamila had an open relationship with Borg in the 90s. She had intimate relations with Clooney and Willis."

Asked if Jamila had ever worked as a prostitute, Mr De Vita said his client was a woman of "great pride and dignity" who followed in the tradition of high-society courtesans.

"If men impressed her and were sexually attracted to her, then an intimate relationship might follow," he said. "Jamila was not averse to accepting gifts, including money."

The case is due to last three days.