Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud connected to his television channels.
An Italian court delivered the verdict against the ex-leader and 10 others in a six-year-old tax fraud trial.
The 76-year-old was also barred from holding political office for three years.
In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final. Berlusconi is expected to appeal and is unlikely to go to prison due to his age, the lengthy appeals process and statute of limitations.
If he goes to prison he will only serve one year due to a 2006 amnesty law aimed at reducing prison overcrowding.
The verdict comes two days after Berlusconi announced he will not run for premier in upcoming elections.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged the defendants were behind a scheme to purchase the rights to broadcast US movies on Berlusconi's private Mediaset television networks through a series of offshore companies and had falsely declared the payments to avoid taxes.
Prosecutors further alleged they inflated the price for the TV rights of some 3,000 films as they re-licensed them internally to Berlusconi's networks, pocketing the difference amounting to around €250m (£200m).
Other charges of false accounting and false statements in financial reports were thrown out because the statute of limitations expired.
The court sentenced Berlusconi and his co-defendants to pay €10m (£8m) to Italian tax authorities, a statement said.
The trial began in July 2006, but was put on hold by a now-defunct immunity law that shielded Berlusconi from prosecution while he was premier until it was watered down by the constitutional court.
The trial also faced delays as Berlusconi cited conflicts with his schedule as premier.
Berlusconi has been tried numerous times for his business dealings. He has always denied wrongdoing and alleged that the cases were politically motivated.
In each case to date, he has been cleared or seen the statute of limitations expire. The statute of limitations in this case is set to expire sometime next year.
Berlusconi also is on trial in Milan on charges of paying for sex with a prostitute and trying to cover it up.

http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTI5aXVqZm9jBF9TAzM5ODMyOTA0MQRnc3RhdGUDMQRwb3MDMgRzZWMDbndfdWtuZXdzBHNsawN0aXRsZQR0YXIDdWsubmV3cy55YWhvby5jb20-/SIG=130n7b1oi/EXP=1352481991/**http%3A//uk.news.yahoo.com/berlusconi-sentenced-four-years-jail-142403721.html

when will country like nigeria starts jailing their corrupt ex and present leaders?

If this happens in Nigeria, more than half of our elected officials should be chilling out in jails all over this country. Even Farouk Lawan is still in the HOR making decisions on behalf of Nigerians! What a shame.

[b]ABUJA, October 18, (THEWILL)- The House of Representatives Thursday completed debate on the general principles of the N4.924 trillion 2013 appropriation bill and passed it for second reading.

The bill has been referred to the Committees on Finance and Appropriation for further legislative action.

The lawmakers who passed the bill at the plenary session presided over by Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal however refused to bulge on the $80pb of crude benchmark it recommended in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for the 2013 budget.

In passing the budget, the lawmakers expressed concern over the multi-billion naira discretionary waivers granted to business concerns -- local and international.

According to them, the waivers will significantly reduce the country's revenue profile for 2013.

Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos/ACN) said there was a need for legislative regulation of waivers as opposed to the present situation were such exemptions were granted by presidential fiat.

He insisted that waivers must be presented to the National Assembly in form of Bills for legislative vetting and deliberation.

"The budget presented contains a number of waivers by presidential fiat that seeks to reduce the revenue that comes to the country. We are talking about deficit and we are reducing revenue," he said.

Hon. Farouk Lawan (Kano/PDP) asked whether the waivers announced on the aviation sector will not be exploited by what he termed "economic saboteurs" to import private jets.

He queried Nigeria's debts which he lamented was on a high since the country exited the Paris Club in 2005 under President Olusegun Obasanjo.

According to Lawan, the 2013 budget did not have a clear strategy to reduce debt.

Jonathan in the 2013 announced that government would continue to implement supportive fiscal measures for some priority areas.

With effect from January 2013, machinery and spare parts imported for local sugar manufacturing industries will now attract zero per cent duty including a five-year tax holiday for "sugarcane to sugar" value chain investors.

In addition, all commercial aircraft and aircraft spare parts imported for use in Nigeria will now attract zero percent duty and zero percent Value Added Tax (VAT).

Tambuwal in his closing remarks while forwarding the 2013 budget to the House Appropriation and Finance committees issued marching orders on the committees to be thorough with the overhead estimates in the budget to ensure that only necessary estimates are passed.

He instructed that savings should be channeled to capital projects, which he said would spur job creation.

The House subsequently proceeded on a two-week break to scrutinise the budget at committee level and for the Muslim Sallah holidays.[/b]
http://www.thewillnigeria.com/general/16752-2013-Budget-House-Set-For-Second-Reading.html