Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was briefly sentenced to four years in jail for tax fraud, and was banned from holding public office for five years.

ITALIAN prime minister Silvio Berlusconi slammed judges as “a cancer of democracy” during his first appearance at a trial for bribery, one of three court cases he is currently facing.

A MILAN court yesterday ordered former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on charges of corruption along with the estranged husband of Britain’s culture minister.