Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to a year in prison for leaking transcripts of a police wiretap. The sentence comes as Italy faces a political stalemate after inconclusive elections.
A Milan court sentenced Berlusconi on Thursday to a year in prison for illegally publishing the transcripts of a police wiretap in a newspaper that he owns.
Meanwhile, Italy's highest appeals court cleared the 76-year-old former primer minister of tax fraud allegations. He was accused of acquiring film and television rights at inflated prices through his Mediatrade company, the broadcast rights unit of his Mediaset group, in order to avoid 10 million euros ($13 million) in taxes.
A verdict is expected on March 18 in Berlusconi's trial on charges of paying for sex with a juvenile prostitute. And a separate trial over broadcast rights involving Berlusconi is expected to conclude on March 23.
The former prime minister's People of Freedom party came in second in Italy's inconclusive parliamentary elections. But a return to power is unlikely, as the center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani - the election victor - has ruled out forming a grand coalition with Berlusconi's center-right party.
slk/mz (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa) DW DE
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