Berlusconi rules out exile if Italy conviction is upheld

ROME: Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would not flee Italy and was ready to go to jail rather than face house arrest or community service if a court upholds his conviction for tax fraud later this week.

Italy’s highest appeals court will tomorrow hear Mr Berlusconi’s final appeal against a four-year prison sentence and a ban from public office for tax fraud in connection with the purchase of broadcasting rights by his television network Mediaset.

He told Libero, a newspaper which supports him, that he would never become a fugitive like the late Bettino Craxi, a former prime minister who fled to Tunisia to escape a jail sentence for corruption and spent the last years of his life in exile.

‘‘I will not go into exile, like Bettino Craxi was forced to. I will also not accept being handed over to social services, like a criminal that has to be reeducated,’’ he said in comments published yesterday.

If the Court of Cassation rejects Mr Berlusconi’s appeal he could serve only one year of his sentence due to a 2006 amnesty law, and at the age of 76 he would likely be granted house arrest, but he challenged judges to put him behind bars. ‘‘If they convict me — if they assume that responsibility — then I’ll go to jail,’’ he said.

Later yesterday a statement from Mr Berlusconi’s office said he had not given a formal interview to Libero but that the paper had interpreted a chat with him.

The comments remained on Mr Berlusconi’s Facebook page.

The media billionaire is accused of inflating the price paid for television rights using offshore companies under his control, and skimming off part of that money to create illegal slush funds.

He was optimistic his appeal against the tax fraud conviction would succeed. He is also appealing against a conviction for abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor, for which he was handed a seven-year sentence in June.