Former Italian PM Berlusconi gets three years in corruption case – Deutsche Welle

The court in southern Italy sentenced Berlusconi to three years in jail and banned him from holding any public office for five years, a judge said in a ruling shown live on television news networks. But since the statute of limitations is expiring, the media mogul won’t have to serve the sentence as the case will be thrown out soon before appeals can be heard.

Prosecutors accused Berlusconi, 78, of bribing Sergio De Gregorio, a ex- senator in the small Italy of Values party, to switch allegiance in 2006 in a move that eventually helped topple the government of Berlusconi’s arch rival, Romano Prodi.

The idea was to further weaken an already fragile coalition and the defection was widely seen as hurting Prodi’s government, which collapsed in 2008, two years after it was elected.

Mr. Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party has since then been sinking in opinion polls, hit by internal divisions and a lack of leadership.

Prosecutor Vincenzo Piscitelli told the court in Naples that the €3 million paid to the senator were “a colossal economic investment made with the aim of achieving the sole goal that interested Berlusconi, who was obsessed by his desire to kick Prodi out and take his post”.

The senator has admitted accepting the money. Mr. Cerabona said the verdict was “disappointing” and said that Mr. Berlusconi will appeal. He was originally sentenced to four years in prison in the case.

He was also found guilty of tax fraud previous year – his first definitive conviction.

Berlusconi finished in March a community service sentence tied to the tax fraud case, but fresh judicial woes are lapping at his feet.

Berlusconi has previously been at the center of numerous corruption allegations.

The inquiry determined that he paid Ruby and other young women some 10 million euros for their silence over what went on at his so-called Bunga Bunga parties. His defence says the gifts are proof of nothing more than their client’s generosity.