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The scandal-hit billionaire tycoon had already announced his retirement from politics last week, but Friday's sentence put an emphatic punctuation mark on the end of his domination of the Italian political scene/FILE

World

End of an era for ‘tax cheat’ Berlusconi

Friday’s sentence came a week after Berlusconi denied in a separate case that he hosted raunchy parties and paid for sex with then 17-year-old exotic dancer Karima El-Mahroug.

He is also charged with abusing his position as prime minister by telling police to release her when she was arrested for petty theft in May 2010.

The charge of exploiting an underage prostitute in Italy carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and abuse of power up to 12 years.

The sex trial was one of the last in a series of scandals that helped precipitate Berlusconi’s downfall in November 2011, which was finally triggered by a parliamentary revolt against him and a wave of panic on financial markets.

Berlusconi, who owns AC Milan football club, three national television channels as well as several private villas, has frequently accused “leftist” prosecutors, notably in Milan, of plotting against him.

He said on Wednesday he would not run in elections early next year and hand his People of Freedom (PDL) party over to a successor, ending months of uncertainty over his candidacy.

Berlusconi’s many legal problems also include the so-called Unipol trial in which he is accused of revealing confidential information about an investigation into a 2005 banking scandal.

Prime minister briefly in 1994, then from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2011, Berlusconi has repeatedly benefited from criminal statutes of limitation in his 33 trials in 18 years in Italian politics.

He was sentenced three times to a total six years and five months in prison in 1997 and 1998 for corruption, forgery and illegal party financing. The sentences were later scrapped by higher courts or fell under the statute of limitations.

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Italian media and judicial officials widely expect the statute of limitations to kick in as soon as next year, which would imply that higher appeal courts will not even have to take on the case.

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