ROME — A court in Italy has ruled that former three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi is eligible to run for office again, nearly five years after a tax fraud conviction forced him to surrender his Senate seat and prevented him from being a candidate in national elections.

Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Saturday that Milan’s Surveillance Tribunal made the decision after reviewing a request from lawyers for the 81-year-old Berlusconi, a media mogul who founded a centre-right political party a quarter-century ago.

The ban on his seeking or holding public office was due to expire in 2019. But Corriere della Sera said the tribunal ruled Friday that Berlusconi already had been “rehabilitated.”

“Silvio Berlusconi can finally return to the playing field,” Mara Carfagna, a leader of the ex-premier’s Forza Italia party. “The ‘rehabilitation’ by the Milan Surveillance Court puts an end to a judicial persecution and a cavalry that didn’t chip away at the strength of great leadership, that, in a profoundly changed political scenario, is today still fundamental and central.”

Milan Prosecutor General Roberto Alfonso said prosecutors have 15 days to decide if they will appeal the tribunal’s decision.

In October 2012, Berlusconi was found guilty of committing tax fraud as part of his vast business dealings. Italy’s highest criminal court upheld his conviction the next year.

Because a 2012 law stipulated that anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison is ineligible to hold or run for public office for six years, Berlusconi had to relinquish his Senate seat.

He had been sentenced to four years, but three were shaved off under an amnesty aimed at reducing crowding in Italy’s prisons. The clock on the ban started running with the appeals court decision in 2013.

Berlusconi then had the option to serve out the remaining time doing public service. He did so, helping residents at a facility for Alzheimer’s patients.

Berlusconi bitterly complained he was treated unfairly, since the 2012 law took effect after the tax fraud. The European Court of Human Rights is expected to rule this year on his appeal of the law’s application to him.

Thus sidelined, Berlusconi was forced to sit out this year’s parliamentary election. The March 4 election resulted in a legislature sharply divided into three factions, one of them a centre-right alliance made up of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the anti-migrant League party.

But with Berlusconi ineligible to seek a fourth stint as premier, right-leaning voters made the League the centre-right’s biggest vote getter. For days now, League leader Matteo Salvini has been trying to hash out a deal with a rival populist, Luigi Di Maio, whose 5-Star Movement emerged as Parliament’s largest party.

During the campaign, Berlusconi disparaged the euroskeptic 5-Stars as “more dangerous than communists,” and he has refused to back a government coalition with them.

Forza Italia votes would give a Salvini-Di Maio coalition an edge in the required confidence votes in Parliament for any new government.

President Sergio Mattarella said Monday that if Italy’s bickering political leaders can’t form a government soon, he would appoint a non-political premier to govern until the end of the year at the latest. That would mean a fresh election years before the 2023 due date, and with the Milan ruling, an opportunity for Berlusconi to run again. </s> A court in Milan has ruled that former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi can run for office again, five years after he was convicted of tax fraud.

The Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Saturday that a tribunal had decided on Friday in favour of a request from lawyers for the 81-year-old ex-premier.

Berlusconi’s 2013 conviction, stemming from dealings in the media mogul’s business empire, left him ineligible for several years to run for or hold public office and forced him to surrender his Senate seat.

The Italian news agency Ansa quoted Milan Chief Prosecutor Roberto Alfonso as saying that prosecutors will decide whether to appeal against the tribunal’s decision.

Berlusconi had the option of serving out his prison sentence by doing public service, which he did, helping residents at a facility for Alzheimer’s patients. </s> A Milan judge on Saturday ordered Silvio Berlusconi to be tried on corruption charges, damping the former Italian premier's hopes of running soon for office again after being sidelined by a tax-fraud conviction. The Italian news agency ANSA, reporting from Milan, said Judge Carlo Ottone De Marchi, after a hearing on an indictment request by prosecutors, set the trial to begin April 5 in that city.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Gazette. </s> An Italian court has lifted a ban on Silvio Berlusconi holding public office, Corriere della Sera reported on Saturday.

The decision by the court in Milan, issued late on Friday afternoon, shakes up Italy’s political landscape just as the populist 5Star Movement and far-right League are engaged in talks to form a government.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has given the two parties until Sunday to reach a coalition deal and end the political impasse that followed a March general election.

Berlusconi on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the League, which ran in an alliance with the former prime minister’s Forza Italia party, to try to form a government with the 5Stars.

Berlusconi had been banned from holding public office because of a conviction for tax fraud, against which he appealed.

The Milan court’s decision would allow Berlusconi to stand as a candidate if Italy ends up holding a fresh general election as a way out of the current political deadlock. </s> A Milan court has ordered the immediate "rehabilitation" of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, lifting his ban on holding elected office a year early.

The verdict struck by Milan's Surveillance Tribunal "cancels all the effects" of Berlusconi's 2013 conviction for tax fraud, Milan daily Corriere della Sera, reported on Saturday. The fraud conviction, which stemmed from his media empire dealings, forced the 81-year-old to surrender his Senate seat and barred him from holding office for six years.

However, the tribunal's ruling means that the three-time former Italian leader could run for prime minister once again, should coalition talks between the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the far-right League break down and new election be called.

"Finally five years of injustice has come to end," Berlusconi's Forza Italia party said in a statement. "Berlusconi can once again be a candidate."

Mara Carfagna, the current leader of Forza Italia, said: "The 'rehabilitation' by the Milan Surveillance Court puts an end to a judicial persecution and a cavalry that didn't chip away at the strength of great leadership that, in a profoundly changed political scenario, is today still fundamental and central."

Milan Prosecutor General Roberto Alfonso said prosecutors will have 15 days to decide whether to appeal the tribunal's decision.

Too little, too late?

However, the ban may have been lifted too late for the 81-year-old, as talks on Saturday between the League's Matteo Salvini and M5S' Luigi Di Maio appeared to be finally making headway.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has given the two leaders until Monday to strike a deal. Otherwise, he said he would appoint a non-political premier to govern Italy until the end of the year at the latest.

The right-wing League-Forza Italia coalition won 37 percent of the vote in March's general election, while M5S became the largest single party, taking around 33 percent. Although Berlusconi was sidelined from running, he went on to campaign actively on behalf of the coalition.

Read more: Italy's Five Star Movement feeds on voters' anger

However, coalition talks stalled in the months after vote, chiefly because of M5S' refusal to negotiate with Berlusconi — who they accuse as embodying Italian political corruption. On Wednesday, Berlusconi appeared to give the green light for Salvini to go ahead and form a government without him.

After dominating Italian politics for more than two decades, the Berlusconi has fought to remain politically relevant in recent years.

The billionaire tycoon was forced to step down as Prime Minister in 2011 after becoming engulfed in a sex scandal involving his infamous so-called " " parties, all while Italian bond yields had surged to unsustainable levels at the height of the euro zone debt crisis.

After being convicted in 2013, Berlusconi accepted the option to serve his sentence by doing public service. He went on to help residents at a facility for Alzheimer's patients.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> A Milan judge Saturday ordered former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to be tried on corruption charges, damping the ex-leader’s hopes of running soon for office again after being sidelined by a tax-fraud conviction.

The Italian news agency ANSA, reporting from Milan, said Judge Carlo Ottone De Marchi, after a hearing on an indictment request by prosecutors, set the trial to begin April 5 in that city.

Milan daily Corriere della Sera says the former three-time prime minister is accused of having shelled out some €10 million ($10.6 million) plus expensive gifts to some 20 young women who attended sexy parties at his Arcore villa near Milan. Prosecutors allege Berlusconi aimed to “buy” the women’s silence in various trials involving him.

Berlusconi’s lawyers have denied any wronging by their client. One of them, Federico Cecconi, told reporters Berlusconi faces “the first trial for the crime of generosity.”

Berlusconi, 80, heads the center-right Forza Italia party, which is now in the opposition.

The latest indictment stems from an investigation into whether the payments constituted corruption in judicial proceedings or if the billionaire media mogul was legitimately helping the young women, who were invited to the so-called bunga-bunga parties at his residences.

Last year, a judge ordered a trial for Karima el-Mahroug and 22 others accused of accepting bribes and lying on the stand to protect Berlusconi in his trial on charges of having paid for sex with el-Mahroug when she was an underage teenager and he prime minister, and then using his influence to cover it up.

Berlusconi was acquitted in the sex-for-hire case on appeal.

His corruption case, which led to Saturday’s indictment, had been separated from those of others due to his health issues.

A 2013 tax fraud condition forced him out of his Senate seat and left him barred from holding public office for the next few years.

Berlusconi has challenged the ban, bringing his case to the European Court of Human Rights. He was stripped of his office under a 2012 law preventing anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison from holding or running for public office for at least six years.

Berlusconi says in his case, being stripped from office amounts to retroactive punishment, since the tax fraud case dates back before 2012.

A Italian national election is due in 2018. But it might be held later this year, after Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi resigned the premiership last month after a stinging defeat in a referendum on his reform agenda. </s> In this Wednesday, May 21, 2014 file photo, Silvio Berlusconi talks during the recording of a TV show in Rome. Just when Silvio Berlusoni hopes to run for office after being sidelined for a tax-fraud conviction, a Milan judge has ordered him to be tried on corruption charges.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Houston Chronicle. </s> A Milan court has rehabilitated media magnate and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, releasing him from his “lifetime ban” on holding public office and paving the way for a possible return to active politics.

In 2013, Mr. Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in prison and barred for life from holding public office, after being found guilty of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute, tax fraud, and abuse of office. In the end, Berlusconi never saw the inside of a prison cell and after the court’s announcement Saturday will be able to run for office if he so desires.

The timing of the court’s decision was curious, since it followed closely upon announcements of a probable coalition government between the two victorious populist parties from the March general election—the League and the 5-Star Movement—along with Berlusconi’s voluntary withdrawal from deliberations.

One need not be a conspiracy theorist to wonder whether the rehabilitation of the “Cavaliere” is intended to destabilize the process and make such a coalition difficult, if not impossible. For many of the old guard, the 81-year-old Berlusconi is looked upon as a lesser evil than the upstart populists, and one who is less likely to overturn the establishment apple cart.

The 5-Star Movement had urged the League to end its ties to Mr Berlusconi, whom it sees as a symbol of the corrupt political practices it opposes, and on Wednesday, Berlusconi said he would not stand in the way of a coalition between the two parties.

While the platforms of the League and the Five Stars are marked by significant differences, in recent days they have begun to converge around key points regarding immigration, relations with the EU, and a possible flat tax for the country. Italy still languishes under a debilitating economic crisis and a fiscal system in desperate need of repair, if not a complete makeover.

In a press release Thursday, the two parties announced that they had achieved “significant milestones” toward forming a workable government. In a Facebook post, Five Star leader Luigi di Maio expressed optimism regarding the prospects of overcoming differences, saying that the two parties had made “considerable progress” and had found “ample convergence on the issues that are nearest to the hearts of Italians.”

Italian president Sergio Mattarella, who has expressed his reservations regarding the election winners for their diffidence toward the European Union, has given the two parties until Monday to strike an accord, and in case of a failure to do so, the nation will hold new elections, perhaps in July. </s> Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attends television talk show "Porta a Porta" (Door to Door) in Rome, Italy, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian court on Saturday ordered ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on charges he bribed witnesses to silence them over accusations he paid for sex with young women.

Berlusconi was acquitted in 2014 of charges of having had sex with Karima El Mahroug, a Moroccan who is better known by her stage name Ruby the Heartstealer, when she was 17.

Prosecutors later alleged that around 10 million euros ($11 million) were paid to corrupt the witnesses in the case, of which, they said, El Mahroug received 7 million.

Berlusconi was to have stood trial with others facing corruption charges but his case was separated from that group because of health problems following heart surgery.

Berlusconi denies all wrongdoing. His trial is due to start on April 5.

Among those being tried in the separate, related corruption trial are 16 women who took part in Berlusconi’s so-called “Bunga Bunga” parties at his residences.

Berlusconi’s lawyer. Federico Cecconi. rejected the accusations, acknowledging that Berlusconi helped some of the girls financially but insisting he did not bribe them. “There is a risk that what will go on trial here is generosity,” he said.

Berlusconi’s political career has been dogged by non-stop legal battles. He was barred from office following a 2013 conviction for tax fraud and although he remains head of his Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party he has lost much popular support.
A court in Milan lifts the consequences of Silvio Berlusconi's 2013 tax evasion sentence. He is now allowed to participate in elections again.