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Italy court upholds Berlusconi tax fraud conviction Italy court upholds Berlusconi tax fraud conviction
(35 minutes later)
An Italian court has upheld a tax fraud conviction imposed on the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. An appeals court in Italy has upheld the conviction for tax fraud of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
An appeals court reinstated an earlier sentence and recommended he serve four years in jail. The court also reinstated a four-year prison sentence and five-year ban from public office he was handed in October.
Mr Berlusconi had appealed against a sentence passed by a lower court in 2012, which found him guilty of tax fraud over the running of his media interests. Mr Berlusconi was convicted of artificially inflating prices of film distribution rights bought by his company, Mediaset, to avoid taxes.
The media mogul was also barred from holding office for five years. He is now expected to appeal against Wednesday's ruling at Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation.
Mr Berlusconi and others were convicted in October 2012 of inflating the price of distribution rights bought by his Mediaset group to avoid paying taxes. The 76 year old has denied the charges and said they are politically motivated.
A Milan court sentenced him to four years but later cut it to one. But instead of overturning October's verdict, the appeals court in Milan upheld Mr Berlusconi's conviction for tax evasion and re-instated the original jail sentence. The term had been cut to one year because of his age.
The former prime minister denied the charges and said they were politically motivated. Mr Berlusconi, whose People of Freedom (PdL) party is part of Italy's new coalition government, is now likely to appeal to the Court of Cassation, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.
But instead of overturning the verdict, the appeals court re-instated the original jail term. The former prime minister is also currently on trial for having sex with an underage prostitute, and abuse of power.
Mr Berlusconi is now likely to appeal to an even higher court, the BBC's Rome Correspondent Alan Johnston reports. Mr Berlusconi has gone before a court a number of times before but he has in the past either been cleared, or cases have run beyond the statute of limitations.