Berlusconi prison sentence upheld by court (but Silvio's army misunderstood the verdict)

Thursday, 1 August 2013. As millions were holding their breath Supreme Court rejected Silvio Berlusconi's last appeal and sentenced him to a four-year jail term. Live.

Italian and European flag in the background, a special edition of Mediaset's Rete4 newsservice
about its boss, Silvio Berlusconi

Almost everybody in Italy was waiting for the dramatic ending of one of Silvio Berlusconi's trial, a tax fraud case involving the billionaire's mass media company Mediaset.

The Cassation's (or Supreme) Court was in charge of ruling the appeal, the last one, which was rejected.

The sentence, read out loud by the president of the Supreme Court, upheld the prison term (four years), but quashed the ban on Mr Berlusconi to hold public office (actually the court just passed the buck to a Milan's appeal court).

Berlusconi and the constitutional court

Wed, 19 June, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi risks of being booted out of politics for good, as he loses appeal to the constitutional court in relation with Mediaset tax fraud trial.

The so-called Mediaset trial has been lingering on for more than 10 years (Wikipedia provides quite an extensive picture over Berlusconi's trials and allegations, click here to check this out).

Will Silvio end up in handcuffs?

the list of people involved is pretty long - a fair share of the Berlusconi family is in it, like Silvio's children Marina Berlusconi and Piersilvio Berlusconi – but it's the head of the family who has more to lose, since he could end up banned from holding public office, if things turn nasty.

Berlusconi's army is not made only of women in skimpy clothes, as you might think. Look at the freedom fighters.

Saturday, 8 June, 2013. Rumour has it that the newly formed Freedom Army is recruiting youngsters from schools, as it is sufficient to be 16 to help Silvio Berlusconi fight the Twenty Years' War and a large number of crusaders is needed to defeat the hordes communists dwelling in the country.

The Freedom Army recruiting web page

The Freedom Army (Esercito della Libertà) – also known as “Esercito di Silvio” (“Silvio's Army”) – is new initiative created by the entrepreneur Simone Furlan, founded with the goal to recruit volunteer crusaders to defend the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi from the continuous attacks from the judiciary, the communists, the anti-democratic forces and their allies.

A clearly example of the bad faith of the prosecutors is the fact that they accused Silvio's former lover Nicole Minetti of having had sex for money with the billionaire, whilst she was in love with him.

The jihad that the freedom fighters are expected to fight is the Twenty Years' War, a war clearly explained in a documentary broadcast by Mediaset's Canale 5, titled “The Twenty Years' War – Ruby's Last Act”.