ROME: Italy's Silvio Berlusconi will do time behind bars if found definitively guilty of tax fraud, rather than take advantage of lenient punishment for the over 70s, he said in an interview published on Sunday.
"I will not go into exile. Nor will I accept being entrusted to social services, like a criminal who has to be reeducated ," the former premier said in an interview in Libero daily, in reference to an upcoming ruling by a top court on his appeal against a guilty tax trial verdict.
The billionaire said he would also refuse to take advantage of Italy's policy to let elderly people carry out sentences under house arrest.
"I am almost 78 years old and I would have the right to house arrest, but if they find me guilty, if they take on that responsibility, I will go to prison ," he told the newspaper.
Italy's supreme court meets on Tuesday to examine afraud trial against Berlusconi , and will rule on whether to uphold his conviction and confirm the one-year prison sentence and a five-year ban from public office.
"I haven't slept for a month. I wake up at night and stare at the ceiling, thinking about what they've done to me," said the media magnate, who has had to deal with a slurry of legal woes during his political career.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/If-convicted-Berlo-wants-jail-no-leniency/articleshow/21443457.cms
"I will not go into exile. Nor will I accept being entrusted to social services, like a criminal who has to be reeducated ," the former premier said in an interview in Libero daily, in reference to an upcoming ruling by a top court on his appeal against a guilty tax trial verdict.
The billionaire said he would also refuse to take advantage of Italy's policy to let elderly people carry out sentences under house arrest.
"I am almost 78 years old and I would have the right to house arrest, but if they find me guilty, if they take on that responsibility, I will go to prison ," he told the newspaper.
Italy's supreme court meets on Tuesday to examine afraud trial against Berlusconi , and will rule on whether to uphold his conviction and confirm the one-year prison sentence and a five-year ban from public office.
"I haven't slept for a month. I wake up at night and stare at the ceiling, thinking about what they've done to me," said the media magnate, who has had to deal with a slurry of legal woes during his political career.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/If-convicted-Berlo-wants-jail-no-leniency/articleshow/21443457.cms
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