An Italian court in Milan has ordered former
prime minister and billionaire tycoon Silvio
Berlusconi to do a year of community service
following his conviction for tax fraud, Italian
media reported.
Tuesday's court order also means that
Berlusconi will have to respect a curfew and
will be limited in his movements, in a further
humiliation for the 77-year-old, who has been
expelled from parliament and is banned from
running in elections for six years.
Details of the ruling were not immediately
available.
Italian media earlier reported that Berlusconi's
lawyers had asked for him to be allowed to do
community service one day a week in a centre
for disabled and elderly people near his estate
outside Milan.
Berlusconi was sentenced last year in the case,
which relates to the purchase of television
distribution rights by his Mediaset business
empire in the 1990s.
He will be spared prison time because of
leniency in Italy for those over 70 years of
age, and the sentence could be further cut for
good behaviour to nine months.
Berlusconi will also be banned from meeting
other people with criminal convictions, which
includes at least one of his closest associates.
There will also be some limits on his
movements, although the conditions are easier
than house arrest.
Under normal rules he would not be allowed
to leave the borders of the Lombardy region,
of which Milan is the capital, and will have to
seek a special exemption if he wants to travel
to Rome for political engagements.
Other charges
Berlusconi is still figurehead leader of the
Forza Italia (Go Italy) opposition party, Italy's
main centre-right group, and is leading its
campaign for European Parliament elections in
May.
Berlusconi claims total innocence of any crime
he has ever been charged with and regularly
accuses a large part of the Italian judiciary of
plotting to exclude him from politics because
of an alleged leftist bias.
He is currently involved in two other court
cases.
In a trial set to start on June 20, he will appeal
a seven-year prison sentence and lifetime ban
from parliament for having sex with an
underage 17-year-old prostitute and abusing
his official powers.
He is also a defendant in a trial for allegedly
paying a $4m bribe to get a centre-left senator
to join his party in 2006 in a move that helped
bring down a rival government.
