Berlusconi’s prison sentence upheld

Italy’s supreme court upheld a jail sentence against Silvio Berlusconi for tax fraud in a devastating blow to the former prime minister that could throw the country’s fragile coalition government into crisis.

After a three-day hearing, the five judges of the supreme court yesterday rejected Berlusconi’s final appeal against the verdict handed down by two lower courts in Milan which sentenced the media mogul to four years in jail — commuted to one year under an amnesty.

But the top judges ordered a judicial review by a Milan court of the second part of his sentence, a five- year ban from public office.