Breaking: Italy's Berlesconi Sentenced to 4 Years in Jail (in Mediaset TV Rights Case)

[Judi Lynn]

13. Silvio Berlusconi a man with 'natural capacity for crime'

Silvio Berlusconi a man with 'natural capacity for crime'

Silvio Berlusconi was condemned as a man with a "natural capacity for crime" by a Milan court which handed him a four year prison sentence for tax fraud.

By Nick Squires, in Rome Alex Spillius
8:33PM BST 26 Oct 2012

The former Italian prime minister's sentence was almost immediately reduced to one year, under a 2006 amnesty law designed to reduce prison overcrowding, but it included a five-year ban on holding public office which could deter him from continuing his long and controversial political career.

Given Mr Berlusconi's record of beating the legal clock and winning appeals, the 76-year-old politician and media tycoon is unlikely to spend time behind bars in the near future, if at all. His indignant lawyers immediately said they would appeal.

Despite years of legal battles, the proceedings at the packed court in Milan amounted to one of the more humiliating episodes Mr Berlusconi has faced.

Judge Edoardo d'Avossa pronounced 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 broadcasting rights for Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset television company. The court's written ruling said he showed a "natural capacity for crime".

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/silvio-berlusconi/9637155/Silvio-Berlusconi-a-man-with-natural-capacity-for-crime.html