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Capacity for crime
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Milan, Oct. 26 (Reuters): Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in jail today for tax fraud in connection with the purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset television company.
The 76-year-old billionaire, who was convicted three times during the 1990s in the first degree before being cleared by higher courts, has the right to appeal the ruling two more times before the sentence becomes definitive. He will not be jailed unless he loses the final appeal.
The ruling comes two days after Berlusconi confirmed he would not run in next year’s elections as the leader of his People of Freedom party, ending almost 19 years as the dominant politician of the Centre-Right.
Milan judge Edoardo d’Avossa told a packed court that between 2000 and 2003, there had been “a very significant amount of tax evasion” and “an incredible mechanism of fraud” in place around the buying and selling of broadcast rights. The court’s written ruling said Berlusconi showed a “natural capacity for crime”.
Berlusconi lawyers Piero Longo and Niccolo Ghedini said the the ruling was “totally divorced from all judicial logic”, adding that they hoped the “atmosphere” at the appeals courts would be different.
Berlusconi, one of Italy's richest men, became prime minister for a second time in 2001 after winning a landslide election victory.
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