Berlusconi ban from office ‘adequate’

P(ANSA) – Rome, April 14 – Silvio Berlusconi’s two-year ban from holding public office, which came with a four-year prison sentence for tax fraud, is “adequate”, Italy’s supreme court said Monday in the explanation of its decision to uphold the ban imposed by a lower court in Milan.BRThe supreme court said that the Milan appeals court had been right to include offences that have been timed out by the statute of limitations when calculating the length of the ban, given the seriousness of the crime. The Milan court had been “coherent” in examining, “in addition to the deeds referring to conduct not timed out, also the personality of the accused to be judged comprehensively, taking account of his criminal and judicial background that includes conduct that has been timed out”. Berlusconi says the tax-fraud ruling, which led to him being ejected from the Senate in November, is part of a two-decade campaign by left-wing elements in the judiciary to erase him from Italy’s public life.BRHis first-ever definitive conviction has prevented him standing as a candidate in next month’s European elections and from voting in them. A Milan court is currently considering whether Berlusconi should serve the 10 months remaining on the sentence under house arrest or, as Berlusconi has requested and prosecutors recommend, by doing community service. The rest of the four-year sentence was covered by amnesties.BRIn two separate cases, Berlusconi is also appealing a conviction for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of office that carried a life office ban; and he is on trial for allegedly bribing a centre-left Senator to switch sides.BRBut last month a Milan court ruled that a one-year term for alleged involvement in the publication of an illegally obtained wiretap had timed out.BR/P
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