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| Italy ex-PM Berlusconi to do community service - court | Italy ex-PM Berlusconi to do community service - court |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi must do one year's community service over tax fraud, a Milan court has ruled. | Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi must do one year's community service over tax fraud, a Milan court has ruled. |
| He was convicted of tax fraud last year in connection with TV rights purchased by his firm Mediaset in the 1990s. | |
| The alternative to community service had been house arrest. It is not yet clear what form his community service will take. | The alternative to community service had been house arrest. It is not yet clear what form his community service will take. |
| The 77-year-old billionaire has been embroiled in a string of court cases. | |
| He was spared prison in the Mediaset case because the Italian legal system is lenient to the over-70s. | |
| Italian media reports say he is likely to work one half-day a week at a home for elderly and disabled people near his estate outside Milan. | |
| He will be subject to a curfew and banned from meeting people with criminal convictions - a measure which applies to at least one of his associates, AFP news agency reports. | |
| Court battles | |
| Berlusconi has always denied the charges, accusing left-wing judges of a witch-hunt aimed at neutralising him as a political leader. | |
| He is still leader of Forza Italia, the main conservative opposition bloc, but he is barred from standing in next month's European elections. | |
| Last year he was convicted of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abusing his powers, which brought him a lifetime ban from public office. He was expelled from the Italian Senate. | |
| He is appealing against the underage sex conviction, in a trial known as the "Ruby" case. | |
| He is also on trial for allegedly bribing a centre-left senator to switch sides. |