Berlusconi cleared in corruption case

Former Italian premiere Silvio Berlusconi has been cleared in a Milan corruption case, news reports said today.

An Italian appeals court upheld Berlusconi's acquittal on corruption charges, lawyers said.

In 2004, a Milan court had cleared Berlusconi of charges that he had bribed judges in connection with the sale of the SME state food conglomerate in the 1980s.

The court had cleared him on one count and said the statute of limitations had run out on a second, but today’s ruling acquitted him on all charges, said lawyer Niccolo Ghedini.

“The court considered the accusations to be completely unfounded,” Ghedini said.

Prosecutors had asked the court to reverse the acquittal and sentence Berlusconi to five years in prison.

The SME case dates back to a decade before the media magnate entered politics.

In 1985, judges blocked the SME sale to a rival industrialist and ruled in favour of a group of magnates including Berlusconi. But the sale never came off, and the food group was later sold off in parcels.

Berlusconi, long plagued by judicial troubles, is on trial in Milan in a separate case, in connection with the purchase of TV rights for US movies by his Mediaset broadcasting empire.