Berlusconi could be scrubbing toilets or helping addicts
Berlusconi has chosen to carry out a community service order rather than be held under house arrest, his lawyer said.
The centre-right leader, 77, was found guilty of falsely recording the price paid for television rights by his Mediaset television empire to pay less tax. He was given a four-year sentence in August, commuted to one year, to be served under house arrest or in community service due to his age.
Lawyer Franco Coppi said he would present the request to work for social services to a Milan court within a week, and the details would be agreed afterwards.
Community service can embrace a vast range of activities from looking after elderly people and disabled people to helping with housing projects or environmental work. It was not clear how this might work out for billionaire Berlusconi whom few Italians could imagine cleaning up a park, for instance, or sweeping a pavement.
The legal troubles of Berlusconi, who is appealing separate convictions for paying for sex with an underage girl and for the publishing of a leaked wiretap, threaten to derail a man who has dominated Italian politics for two decades.
Berlusconi maintains the trials are driven by left-leaning judges to destroy him politically.
