Berlusconi: I will not go into exile — I’m ready for jail

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would not flee Italy and was ready to go to jail rather than face house arrest or community service if a court upholds his conviction for tax fraud next week.

Italy’s highest appeals court will tomorrow hear Berlusconi’s final appeal against a four-year prison sentence and a ban from public office for tax fraud in connection with the purchase of broadcasting rights by his television network Mediaset.

He told Libero, a newspaper which supports him, that he would never become a fugitive like the late Bettino Craxi, a former prime minister who fled to Tunisia to escape a jail sentence for corruption and spent the last years of his life in exile.

“I will not go into exile, like Bettino Craxi was forced to. I will also not accept being handed over to social services, like a criminal that has to be re-educated,” he said.

If the Court of Cassation rejects Berlusconi’s appeal he could serve only one year of his sentence due to a 2006 amnesty law, and at the age of 76 he would likely be granted house arrest, but he challenged judges to put him behind bars. “If they convict me — if they assume that responsibility — then I’ll go to jail,” he said.

Later yesterday a statement from Berlusconi’s office said he had not given a formal interview to Libero but that the paper had interpreted a chat with the centre-right leader.

The media billionaire is accused of inflating the price paid for television rights using offshore firms under his control, and skimming off part of that money to create illegal slush funds.

He said he was optimistic that his appeal would succeed tomorrow.

A decision by the court to fast-track the final ruling has aggravated tension in prime minister Enrico Letta’s squabbling left-right coalition government.

Berlusconi’s lawyers had not expected a ruling until late in the year but the court said it had been forced to call a special summer sitting because part of the case will expire under the statute of limitations on Aug 1.

Berlusconi is also appealing against a separate conviction for abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor, for which a lower court handed him a seven-year jail sentence in June.

Berlusconi told Libero he had not slept for a month due to his legal headaches.