The Italian Supreme Court Thursday confirmed Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's four-year jail-term on charges of tax fraud but he is unlikely to be imprisoned because of his old age.
Despite the court's confirmation, the 76-year-old former Italian prime minister is unlikely to be jailed because of a 2006 amnesty law that exempts certain criminals including government leaders from being jailed if they are above 70.
Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in prison last October though the sentence was automatically reduced to one year under the amnesty law.
The Supreme Court Thursday confirmed the four-year jail term for the former prime minister for tax evasion. He is likely to be under house arrest for one year at most, according to the media reports.
The ex prime minister has two options under law: one of being under house arrest at one of his homes or to put himself "in the care of social services," according to the Rome-based daily newspaper La Repubblica.
The court also ordered an appeal review of a five-year ban on public office, which is part of the conviction and the court said it could be lowered to one to three years.
He is also not in danger of losing his senate seat immediately as the Supreme Court is asking a lower court to "recalculate the length of the ban."
It is said that the decision will not come sooner than this fall and it may be sent for another appeal before the Supreme Court.
Silvio Berlusconi has been Italy's longest serving Prime Minister since World War II.
