Berlusconi sentenced to 3 years behind bars for bribery
An Italian court has sentenced former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to three years in prison for bribing a senator.
The court in Naples on Wednesday also banned Berlusconi from holding public office for 5 years.
The former prime minister was found guilty of paying a total of three million euros ($3.3 million) in bribes to Senator Sergio De Gregorio back in 2006.
The bribe was part of a plan to destabilize the government of then leftist Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
However, the 78-year-old media tycoon will not serve the sentence as the case would reach its statute of limitations on November 6, according to Berlusconi’s lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini.
Prosecutor Henry John Woodcock described the trial as “good and passionate”, saying that “in terms of consequences the imminent expiration date takes all the pathos out of the verdict.”
Earlier this year, Berlusconi was also convicted of corporate tax fraud.
Berlusconi served three times as Italy's prime minister, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011.
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