Berlusconi: I’m being harassed by judges

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.

However, the Milan court cut the sentence to one year under an amnesty approved in 2006 to reduce overcrowding in prisons.

Berlusconi, 76, who owns AC Milan, one of Italy’s premier football clubs, is considered certain to stave off any imprisonment or ban on his political activities by appealing to higher courts.

He condemned the sentence as “intolerable judicial harassment” and his lawyer branded the verdict as “absolutely unbelievable”.

Berlusconi was accused of artificially inflating the price of distribution rights bought by his Mediaset empire and of creating foreign slush funds to avoid paying taxes.

Prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale said in June that Mediaset costs for films had been inflated by $368m (€284m) from 1994 to 1998, and by €40m from 2001 to 2003. The sentence came a week after Berlusconi denied at a separate trial that he hosted raunchy parties, had sex with a 17-year-old prostitute, or pressured police officers.

Hollywood star George Clooney failed to appear to give evidence yesterday, leading the prosecutor to accuse the defence of seeking to slow the proceedings.