Silvio Berlusconi was condemned as a man with a “natural capacity for crime” by a Milan court which handed him a four year prison sentence for tax fraud.
The former Italian prime minister’s sentence was almost immediately reduced to one year, under a 2006 amnesty law designed to reduce prison overcrowding, but it included a five-year ban on holding public office which could deter him from continuing his long and controversial political career.
Given Mr Berlusconi’s record of beating the legal clock and winning appeals, the 76-year-old politician and media tycoon is unlikely to spend time behind bars in the near future, if at all. His indignant lawyers immediately said they would appeal.
Despite years of legal battles, the proceedings at the packed court in Milan amounted to one of the more humiliating episodes Mr Berlusconi has faced.