{"id":13593,"date":"2014-04-15T13:46:25","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T13:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=13593"},"modified":"2014-04-15T13:46:25","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T13:46:25","slug":"italy-ex-pm-berlusconi-to-do-community-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/04\/italy-ex-pm-berlusconi-to-do-community-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy ex-PM Berlusconi to do community service"},"content":{"rendered":"
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi must perform a year’s community service in a home for the elderly, a Milan court has ruled.<\/p>\n
The sentence followed his conviction last year for tax fraud in connection with the purchase of TV rights by his firm, Mediaset, in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Berlusconi’s lawyers said they were “satisfied” that the ruling would allow him to remain politically active.\u00a0The 77-year-old billionaire has been embroiled in a string of court cases.<\/p>\n
He was spared prison in the Mediaset case because the Italian legal system is lenient to the over-70s.\u00a0The alternative to the community-service sentence would have been house arrest.<\/p>\n
Italian media reports say Berlusconi is likely to work one half-day a week at a home for elderly and disabled people near his estate outside Milan.<\/p>\n
The Ansa news agency identified the home as the Fondazione Sacra Famiglia, a church-run centre with 2,000 patients.<\/p>\n
Berlusconi will be subject to a curfew and banned from meeting people with criminal convictions – a measure which applies to at least one of his associates, AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n
However, he will be free to travel to Rome from Tuesday to Thursday each week.<\/p>\n