Berlusconi Sentenced, A Milan judge sentenced ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi to a one-year jail term Thursday for conspiring to reveal classified police files about a banking investigation to a newspaper owned by his family.
For the businessman-turned-politician, who reinvigorated his political career with a strong showing in last month's parliamentary elections, the blow is largely symbolic.......online.wsj.
Mr. Berlusconi is unlikely to serve the sentence. Prison terms in Italy aren't carried out until the lengthy appeals process is exhausted. Judges aren't likely to complete the proceedings: On Sept. 15, the statute of limitations will kick in, extinguishing the conviction and the prison sentence, according to one of Mr. Berlusconi's lawyers.
Mr. Berlusconi is currently appealing a separate one-year jail term issued last year.
Thursday's case concerns Italian insurance company Unipol's UNI.MI +2.04% attempted bid to buy Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in 2005. Il Giornale, a daily paper owned by Mr. Berlusconi's brother, Paolo, published a conversation obtained in a police wiretap that was alleged to have been between Piero Fassino, then-leader of Italy's left-leaning opposition party, and Giovanni Consorte, then chairman of Unipol. Mr. Fassino reportedly said: "So, do we own a bank?"
The publication of the police transcript embarrassed Mr. Fassino and his center-left party just as they were preparing to challenge Mr. Berlusconi in national elections in 2006. Mr. Fassino said at the time the publication had been designed to embarrass his party; Mr. Consorte's response wasn't immediately clear.
Mr. Berlusconi lost the elections but garnered enough votes to form a powerful opposition group in Parliament that eventually brought down the center-left government of Romano Prodi in 2008.
Paolo Berlusconi was sentenced Thursday to a jail term of just over two years.
Both Berlusconis have denied the charges. In a statement emailed Thursday, Silvio Berlusconi said he had no role in the publication of the conversation and that he never listened to the alleged conversation before it was published.
Piero Longo, a lawyer for the former premier, said Thursday that "the evidence against [Silvio Berlusconi] is insufficient, contradictory if not totally missing."
Mr. Berlusconi is currently appealing the sentence he received in connection with a tax-fraud judgment issued last year over the acquisition of TV rights for the Italian broadcaster Mediaset MS.MI +0.13% SpA. In that matter, public prosecutor Laura Bertole Viale last week asked a Milan appeals court to confirm last October's first-instance verdict—a four-year sentence, a five-year ban from public office and three-year ban from holding a position in a company.
Mr. Berlusconi is also on trial on separate charges of paying for sex with an underage woman and abusing his office in an attempt to cover up the relationship. The woman, Karima El Mahroug, isn't accused of wrongdoing and has said she never had sexual intercourse with Mr. Berlusconi. That trial is expected to reach a verdict in the coming weeks.
