Ex-Italian PM, Belusconi, bags seven years imprisonment

A Milan court sentenced Italian former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday to seven years in prison after convicting him of paying for sex with a minor but he will not have to serve any jail time before he has exhausted appeals.

Reuters reports that with two appeals possible, it could be years before a verdict is final and Berlusconi lawyers announced they would file an appeal against what his counsel NiccoloGhedini called a “completely illogical” verdict.

The verdict against the flamboyant 76-year-old media tycoon added to the complications facing Prime Minister Enrico Letta, whose fragile left-right coalition is supported by Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom party.

Berlusconi was found guilty of paying for sex with former teenage nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, better known under her stage name “Ruby the Heartstealer”, during alleged “bungabunga” sex parties at his palatial home near Milan.

The panel of three judges, all women, also convicted him of abuse of office by arranging to have El Mahroug released from police custody when she was detained in a separate theft case. As a result, the judges banned Berlusconi from public office.

The verdict closes a two-year trial that has mesmerized Italy with its accounts of “bungabunga” parties at the billionaire’s private villa outside Milan while he was premier in 2010.