Berlusconi to begin community service!

 

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is due to start a year of community service at a care home near Milan.

He was sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud last year, commuted to four hours work a week with elderly dementia patients.

The Catholic care home says Berlusconi, 77, will be treated like any other assistant.

The billionaire has been embroiled in a string of court cases.

His conviction last year was in connection with the purchase of TV rights by his firm, Mediaset, in the 1990s.

But he was spared prison because the Italian legal system is lenient to the over-70s.

Berlusconi chose community service rather than house arrest to serve out his commuted sentence.

 

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says this will enable him to continue to lead his centre-right party, Forza Italia, in the European elections, although he has been forced to resign his seat in the upper house of parliament.

Berlusconi has also had to surrender his passport and his travel within Italy is severely restricted.
He also has to observe a nightly curfew at his palatial home.

Berlusconi is said to have been studying Alzheimer's disease in preparation for his community service. He was due to arrive at the San Pietro care home in Cesano Boscone at 09:45 local time (07:45 GMT).

Massimo Restelli, head of care services there, told La Repubblica newspaper that Berlusconi's introduction would be "gradual" so that he and the elderly patients could get used to each other.
e near Milan.