Italy's top court confirms Berlusconi conviction

Eric J. Lyman | Special for USA TODAY

ROME – Italy's highest court on Thursday upheld a conviction against for prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, but it stopped short of enforcing the five-year-ban on politics that would have likely ended the tycoon's political career.

Tensions had been building across Italy since Tuesday when the nation's highest court began its deliberations in the false accounting and tax evasion regional court verdict.

The lower court found Berlusconi, 76, guilty of creating a slush fund worth nearly $400 million from acquisition deals with Mediaset, the cinema and television giant the billionaire Berlusconi controls.

The verdict is the first definitive conviction in more than two dozen cases against Berlusconi yet it did not oust him from his current seat in the Senate and thus end a colorful career in which he has been accused of corruption and of hiring underage prostitutes for parties at his mansion.

A four-year jail term may have hampered his plans but that was reduced to a year because of a seven-year-old amnesty law, and he will most likely serve that under house arrest or perhaps via community service. Berlusconi still blasted the ruling.

"Today's sentence confirms the opinion that a part of the judiciary in our country has become irresponsible, uncontrolled, and uncontrollable," he said.

Crowds gathered both at the Supreme Court building in Rome and at Berlusconi's Roman villa, where he waited on a verdict with his two oldest children, Pier Silvio, 44, who has taken over day-to-day operations at Mediaset, and Marina, 46, who has been tapped as her father's political heir.

Berlusconi critics outnumbered his supporters by around 3-to-1, but both sides were vocal. There were exchanges of words and a few shoving matches between pro- and anti-Berlusconi demonstrators waiting at the court notice came about three hours later than scheduled.

"We were all hoping and praying that the court decision would mean we'd seen the last of Berlusconi, but it's not to be," said Massimo Cantellari, 44, a consultant who led one of the groups critical of Berlusconi demonstrating outside the courthouse. "He is like a fly that keeps buzzing around even when you try to swat it away. But the difference is the consequences for the country are severe."

Manuela Sorentina, a 24-year-old graduate student, agreed: "Berlusconi has dominated politics my entire life and it's time for a change," she said.

Berlusconi's allies saw things differently. Stefano Lombardi, a 55-year-old bank manager, said justice was done.

"The judiciary is no friend of Berlusconi, so if hey say the ban from politics was too harsh and should be reconsidered, then I think we can agree that's indeed the case," Lombardi said. "He is Italy's one great leader, and we need him."

Italian new sites covered the verdict along political lines, with Il Giornale, the Milan daily Berlusconi controls, running a banner headline reading "There are no words."

Berlusconi has been hounded by legal troubles since he pivoted from his position as a well-known media mogul and soccer team owner to enter politics 20 years ago. He became prime minister for the first of three stints in 1994.

The Italian media reported that regional court would begin reconsidering the case in October, and whatever ruling they make can again be appealed. The most likely outcome is that the statute of limitations, set to expire late next year, could run out before the appeals process concludes.

With the ruling, Berlusconi's coalition will almost surely continue to back the fragile government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta. There were indications Berlusconi's allies in parliament might have walked out on the coalition if the politics ban had been upheld, causing the government to collapse.

Berlusconi's political woes do not conclude with Thursday's ruling. He has two other guilty verdicts under appeal. A one-year jail term in a wire tap case connected to Il Giornale, and a seven-year prison sentence and lifetime politics ban for abuse of power and paying an under-age girl for sex. The appeals in both cases are expected to be heard starting later this year.