MILAN--Italian judges have decided that former premier Silvio
Berlusconi must perform community service as a result of a
tax-fraud conviction he received last year.
The Milan judges ruled Tuesday that the 77-year-old media mogul
will help the elderly in a center in Lombardy, the region where
Milan is located and where Mr. Berlusconi keeps his primary
residence. The judges had to decide whether Mr. Berlusconi would
perform community service or instead submit to house arrest as part
of a tax-fraud conviction received last August that was tied to Mr.
Berlusconi's media company, Mediaset SpA.
The ruling states that Mr. Berlusconi will have to perform four
hours of service once a week. He cannot leave Lombardy, where he
has a palatial home just outside Milan, but is allowed to travel to
Rome between Tuesday and Thursday each week, as long as he returns
home by Thursday evenings. Mr. Berlusconi, one of Italy's richest
men, also has a home in Rome's historic center.
Mr. Berlusconi was found guilty of having had a role in allowing
the firm to fraudulently lower its tax bill by buying U.S. film and
television rights at inflated prices. He has always denied any
wrongdoing. His lawyers weren't immediately reachable for comment
on Tuesday.
The billionaire was sentenced to a four-year jail term, which
was automatically cut to one year following a 2006 law to reduce
overcrowding in jails; the one-year jail term can be substituted by
community service or house arrest.
The ruling gives the billionaire politician some freedom to
continue to serve as head of center-right party Forza Italia and
campaign for the coming European elections. Mr. Berlusconi, who had
to renounce his passport when he was convicted last August, cannot
travel abroad and was ousted from his seat in Italy's Senate last
fall as a result of the conviction. He was also banned from holding
public office.
Mr. Berlusconi will being the community service around the end
of the month.
Write to Manuela Mesco at manuela.mesco@wsj.com
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