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's supporters erroneously celebrating...

Due to the conventional phrasing used and the order of the sentences used (apart from the fact that the judges were worn off by almost seven hours of mulling), only the words “annul” and “sentence” came through to the Silvio's Army, which started to celebrate their leader's victory (but that wasn't the case, to their bitter disappointment).

The verdict is an “apocalypse for Italy”, according to hardliners from Berlusconi's People of Liberty party (the blonde loyalist Michaela Biancofiore offered her resignation from the government as cabinet under secretary), a “Berlin's wall falling” according to Berlusoni's opponent Beppe Grillo, who said that it was that wall which separated Italy form democracy, and just a hiccup according to prime minister who will try to get along with a government whose main ally is a tax dodger.

Silvio Berlusconi will speak his mind on a video, we'll try to get hold of it and translate its content to you. Must be fun.

The four-year sentence is likely to be reduced to one year, due to a pardon, and Silvio Belusconi – who is now 76 - is expected to serve it under house arrest, even though he recently declared that he wanted to go to a jail cell.