Italian court orders Berlusconi to do community service

An Italian court on Tuesday ordered former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to do a year of community service in a Catholic Church-run old people's home in a symbolic but humiliating punishment for tax fraud.

The flamboyant 77-year-old billionaire tycoon will have to work at the centre "one day a week and for not less than four hours", Milan judge Pasquale Nobile De Santis said in a written statement released by the court.

The ANSA news agency identified the centre as the Fondazione Sacra Famiglia -- a Church-run centre for disabled and elderly people with 2,000 patients in Cesano Boscone in Milan's southwestern outskirts.

The three-time prime minister, who had the longest stint as premier in Italian history, will work at a daycare centre at the facility that caters for Alzheimer's patients, the Corriere della Sera said.

The court in Milan said Berlusconi would have to stay in the Lombardy region most of the week but would be granted special dispensation to travel to Rome between Tuesdays and Thursdays for political engagements.

The once hard-partying former premier will also have to respect a curfew by staying at home in either Rome or Milan from 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) until 6:00 am (0400 GMT) for the duration of his community service.

Berlusconi will also now be banned from meeting other people with criminal convictions, which includes at least one close associate -- former defence minister Cesare Previti, who has been sentenced for bribery.

It is not clear when the community service would start but Berlusconi has a maximum of 10 days to sign up at the Milan office charged with implementing the sentence.

'Socially dangerous'

The ruling said the community service meant Berlusconi was "still a socially dangerous person" but his readiness to pay compensation and fees in the case "appear to be indications of a willingness to reform".

It also warned "offensive" comments made by Berlusconi about the judiciary could, if repeated, be reason to revoke community service and impose house arrest.

Berlusconi was at his residence in Rome on Tuesday and meeting with his lawyers as well as top allies.

Berlusconi has been expelled from parliament and is barred from running in an election for six years. But he remains the leader of Italy's main centre-right party, Forza Italia (Go Italy) and is still a major political player.

The ruling is certain to ease the veteran politician's concern about campaigning for European Parliament elections next month even though recent polls show him lagging behind the ruling centre-left Democratic Party.

Berlusconi's lawyers Niccolo Ghedini and Franco Coppi welcomed the ruling as "balanced and satisfactory relating to the requirements of his political activity".

But Daniele Capezzone, a lawmaker from Forza Italia, said it was still "a blow for democracy".

Berlusconi was sentenced last year in the case, which relates to the purchase of television distribution rights by his Mediaset business empire in the 1990s.

He was spared prison time because of leniency in Italy for convicted over-70s and the sentence could be further cut for good behaviour to nine months.

Berlusconi claims total innocence of any crime he has ever been charged with and regularly accuses a large part of the Italian judiciary of plotting to exclude him from politics because of an alleged leftist bias.

He is currently involved in two other court cases.

In a trial set to start on June 20, he will appeal a seven-year prison sentence and lifetime ban from parliament for having sex with an underage 17-year-old prostitute and abusing his official powers.

He is also a defendant in a trial for allegedly paying a three-million euro ($4 million) bribe to get a centre-left senator to join his party in 2006 in a move that helped bring down a rival government.