FOX NEWS: MILAN – A court in Italy has convicted former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced him to four years in prison.
The conviction Friday was the 76-year-old media mogul's first in a long series of trials, but it did not mean he was going to prison right away. Cases in Italy must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final.
His lawyers declined to comment immediately, but the billionaire businessman is expected to appeal. Berlusconi wasn't in the courtroom for the verdict on the case stemming from dealings in his Mediaset business empire.
A total of 11 people were on trial. Prosecutors had alleged that the defendants were behind a scheme to purchase the rights to broadcast U.S. movies on Berlusconi's private TV networks in his Mediaset empire through a series of offshore companies and had falsely declared the payments to avoid taxes.
Berlusconi's designated political heir as the head of the center-right party he leads, Angelino Alfano, blasted the verdict Friday as "incomprehensible" and said he was confident an appeals court would throw out the conviction. » | Associated Press | Friday, October 26, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to four years in jail: Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, has been sentenced to four years in prison after a court in Milan convicted him of tax evasion. » | Friday, October 26, 2012
THE WASHINGTON POST: The 3 reasons Silvio Berlusconi might never see prison: » | Max Fisher | Friday, October 26, 2012
CHANNEL NEWS ASIA: Clooney absent from Berlusconi sex trial: ROME: Hollywood star George Clooney failed to appear Friday to give evidence in the trial of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on sex charges, leading the prosecutor to accuse the defence of seeking to slow down the proceedings. ¶ Clooney and his former fiancee Elisabetta Canalis have been named as defence witnesses and Clooney was due to testify Friday but did not appear. » | AFP/al | Friday, October 26, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Silvio Berlusconi four-year sentence quickly cut to one year: Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion, only for the prison term to be reduced swiftly to one year. » | Nick Squires, Rome and Alex Spillius | Friday, October 26, 2012
