By GAIA PIANIGIANI
Published: May 8, 2013
ROME — An appeals court in Milan upheld a conviction on Wednesday of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for tax fraud, sentencing him to four years in prison and imposing a five-year ban on holding public office.
The ruling was a blow for Mr. Berlusconi, the leader of Italy’s main center-right party, which recently formed a grand coalition government with its main political opponent, the Democratic Party.
If upheld by the Court of Cassation, the final arbiter, the ruling would mean that Mr. Berlusconi would lose his seat in Parliament, one of his lawyers said Wednesday.
Italy’s highest court, which rules on questions of legal procedures, could hear the case as early as this year, the lawyer said. Even if Mr. Berlusconi, 76, were definitively convicted, he would be unlikely to go to prison because of his age.
“This ruling was more than expected, it was predictable,” said Piersilvio Cipollotti, one of Mr. Berlusconi’s lawyers.
Mr. Berlusconi’s legal entanglements weigh heavily on Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s new government, which many here perceive as a fragile coalition of parties with different agendas and interests.
In this case, Milan prosecutors argued that Mr. Berlusconi and several other defendants used a series of offshore companies to buy the rights to broadcast about 3,000 American movies on Mr. Berlusconi’s television networks and falsely declared the amount of the payments to avoid taxes. The defendants are alleged to have re-licensed the films internally to Mr. Berlusconi’s networks, pocketing the difference of about $330 million.
Over the years, Mr. Berlusconi has been involved in dozens of legal cases, mostly connected to his business holdings in real estate, insurance, advertising and publishing.
However, he has never served jail time. Some of his convictions were overturned on appeal. Others were thrown out for lack of evidence, or the statute of limitations expired before a final judgment was reached.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento