Italy ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi hospitalized with heart problems

Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was admitted to hospital in Milan on Tuesday morning for a heart problem, according to Italian media reports.

A spokesperson said his condition was not life-threatening.

Berlusconi suffered “cardiac deficiency” and would undergo tests, the San Raffaele hospital here also said in a statement. “This irregularity will be monitored, and he will leave hospital in a few days’ time”. The one-time cruise ship singer, renowned for a party lifestyle that continued even during his time in office, had a pacemaker fitted in 2006 in a hospital in the United States.

He was sentenced to four years in jail, which was reduced to one year and commuted to community service, and banned from holding public office for two years.

Berlusconi, who turns 80 in September, was hospitalised in a clinic in Milan in northern Italy.

Berlusconi’s reputation and stature on the global scene was tainted for years by lurid details of his infamous “bunga bunga” parties with young starlets and models.

Mr Berlusconi denied knowing the Moroccan national was under the legal age of 18 to sell sex and the conviction was later overturned on appeal.

Berlusconi’s political influence has waned since he left government in 2011.

Forbes ranks Berlusconi 188th on its list of the world’s billionaires, with a net worth of $6.2 billion.