The sentence the court confirmed was four years, but it was automatically reduced to one year under a law aimed at combating prison overcrowding.
The decision by the Court of Cassation was the first time Mr. Berlusconi has received a definitive conviction in 20 years of tangles with Italy’s judicial system. In the other cases brought against Mr. Berlusconi over the years — which range from tax evasion to buying judges to embezzlement — he was either acquitted on appeal or the statute of limitations ran out.
However, Thursday’s ruling does not automatically send Mr. Berlusconi to jail or house arrest. The same Milan appeals court that convicted the former prime minister must also formally request his arrest. Mr. Berlusconi’s lawyers could also request a suspended sentence.
A Senate committee must rule on whether Mr. Berlusconi must resign from public office, a procedure that could take months. Almost all lawmakers handed definitive sentences have chosen to leave Parliament of their own volition in order to avoid embarrassment.
Opposition politicians immediately called for Mr. Berlusconi to resign out of respect for a Parliament elected to uphold laws, not break them. Vito Crimi, a member of Parliament from the Five Star Movement, called the it “shameful” that Mr. Berlusconi would stay in public office. “I would expect that all his MPs call for his resignation out of respect for Parliament.”
The ruling could upend his center-right People of Liberty party, more a charismatic movement than an ideologically coherent party, and also strain the center-left Democratic Party, elements of which have never liked sharing power with their former rival.
Mr. Berlusconi is still facing trial on charges of paying for sex with the Moroccan-born Karima el Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby Heartstealer, when she was still a minor, and abusing his office to cover it up.
In the case upheld Thursday, prosecutors had argued that Mr. Berlusconi and other defendants bought the rights to broadcast American movies on his networks through a series of offshore companies and falsely declared how much they paid in order to avoid taxes.
Experts had said that if the high court upheld the tax fraud sentence, Mr. Berlusconi, 76, would more likely face house arrest, considering his age.
In comments published recently on his party’s Facebook page, Mr. Berlusconi, a former prime minister, said he was prepared to go to prison if he was convicted, and would not go into exile like Bettino Craxi, Italy’s former Socialist leader, who died in exile in Tunisia after a party-finance scandal that brought down the Italian postwar political order in the early 1990s.
The case has once again brought Mr. Berlusconi to the fore of the national conversation, where he occupies far more space and airtime than Mr. Letta, the current prime minister.
For days, Mr. Berlusconi’s core of loyal supporters has been up in arms, lambasting the Italian judiciary for what it sees as its attacks on him, and some members of Parliament from his People of Liberty party have hinted that they would leave the government if he was convicted.
Others seem to be enjoying the spectacle. A verdict that was upheld would be “the death of democracy,” Daniela Santanchè, a former government official best known for her frequent television appearances defending Mr. Berlusconi, wrote on Twitter.
Many, even on Mr. Berlusconi’s own legal team, said they believed the court would uphold the sentence in some form.
The dozens of trials involving Mr. Berlusconi have often caused political turmoil. In July, members of Mr. Berlusconi’s party stormed out of Parliament and blocked parliamentary activities for a day after the court set the hearing for the tax fraud case earlier than expected.
Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/world/europe/ruling-on-berlusconi-case-by-italys-top-court-is-expected.html?partner=rss&emc=rss