This video from Italy is called Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to 4 years in prison.
From Associated Press:
Silvio Berlusconi Trial: Former Italian Prime Minister Sentenced For Tax Evasion
By COLLEEN BARRY
10/26/12 11:59 AM ET EDT
MILAN — A court in Milan Friday convicted former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced the media mogul to four years in prison, his first prison sentence in years of criminal probes.
The 76-year-old billionaire businessman is expected to remain free until the appeals process is exhausted. In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final.
Berlusconi received a suspended sentence in 1997 for false bookkeeping, but that conviction was reversed on appeal. Other criminal investigation probes against him on charges including corruption had ended in acquittal or were thrown out for statute of limitations.
For nearly 20 years, Berlusconi has dominated the Italian political scene, but his star began to lose its glitter after a recent sex scandal that has pushed him into another trial in the same courthouse, and amid the European debt crisis that effectively forced him out of office last November.
Earlier in the week, Berlusconi had announced he wouldn’t run for a fourth term, leaving his center right party under pressure to find another charismatic figure before next spring’s election.
Berlusconi wasn’t in the courtroom. In a statement, his lawyers denounced the verdict as `’absolutely incredible,” and said they would appeal.
…
In this and other cases against him, Berlusconi has described himself as the innocent victim of prosecutors he contends sympathize with the left.
Berlusconi, along with other defendants convicted in the case, must deposit a total of (EURO)10 million ($13 million) into a court-ordered fund appeals, which could take years, proceed.
Prosecutors alleged that the defendants were behind a scheme to purchase the rights to broadcast U.S. movies on Berlusconi’s private TV networks in his Mediaset empire through a series of offshore companies and had falsely declared the payments to avoid taxes.
Related articles
- Berlusconi Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Fraud – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
- Silvio Berlusconi four-year sentence quickly cut to one year (telegraph.co.uk)