Berlusconi denounces fraud verdict as 'political'

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has described the one-year jail sentence he has been given for tax evasion as unbearable.

Speaking on television in Italy, Berlusconi accused the judiciary of attacking him for political reasons.

Lawyers for Berlusconi are to appeal against his jail sentence, a process that could take several years.

Prosecutors had brought the case against Berlusconi and ten other co-defendants over the purchase of rights to broadcast US films on Berlusconi's Mediaset empire.

Berlusconi said: "If you can't count on impartial judges in a country, the country becomes uncivil, barbarian and unliveable and stops being a democracy.

"It's sad, but the situation of our country today is that way."

Berlusconi has been convicted of lesser crimes in past trials, but they have always been thrown out on appeal.

"I was sure to be acquitted from an accusation that is out of reality. This conviction is political, incredible and unbearable, we can't go on like this," he said.

"It proves that there is a persistent judiciary attack against me and that there is a political usage of the justice."

He is also on trial in Milan on a charge of paying for sex with a Moroccan teenager and trying to cover it up.

Berlusconi also said that he will stay in politics, saying that he felt "obliged to stay in the field" in order to protect other Italians from what he called judicial injustices.

However, he says he will not be a candidate for the post of prime minister in the next election.

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