Looks like Silvio Berlusconi will be spending some time at a nursing home, and not because he's grown tired of his lavish mansion. It's where Italy's former prime minister will serve out his community service.
In 2012, a court convicted the billionaire tycoon of tax fraud in connection with his television empire back in the 1990s. (Via Euronews)
For the next year, an Italian court has ordered he visit this church-run center for the elderly and people with disabilities at least once a week for four hours. (Via Sacra Famiglia)
Berlusconi will also have a curfew, and his movements will be heavily restricted. But it sure beats the alternative. (Via ABC)
As The Guardian notes, at 77, Berlusconi was too old to do jail time in Italy, but he did face the prospect of house arrest.
His lawyers called the more lenient sentence "balanced and satisfactory," though the BBC's Alan Johnston adds Berlusconi must find it highly embarrassing: "Working in that old folks' home will feel very different from his days in the prime ministerial palace."
For years, Berlusconi has been wrapped up in a number of various court cases. He's always denied any wrongdoing, instead accusing the judges of conducting a partisan witch hunt against him.
The three-time prime minister once even compared the prosecution to the same faced by Jesus Christ. (Via The Telegraph)
He's currently appealing another conviction for sex with an underage prostitute — that crime brought him a lifetime ban from public office. (Via ITN)
A member of his legal team told CNN he'll start this latest sentence in the coming days.
