Berlusconi sentence reduced to 12 months

AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi has had his original four-year jail sentence reduced to 12 months.

The 76-year-old was originally handed a four-year jail sentence and a 10-million-euro fine on Friday, for his part in a tax fraud scandal, but the sentence was later cut thanks to the application of a 2006 Amnesty Law aimed at reducing overcrowding in prisons.

Berlusconi, along with 10 others, was on trial after it was alleged that the defendants were involved in a scheme to purchase American movies for his company Mediaset through an offshore firm and had failed to properly declare payments so as to avoid taxes.

It was also claimed that Berlusconi had re-licensed the films, and pocketed the difference, making the Milan supremo some 250 million euros.

The former Italian Prime Minister has been involved in a number of legal procedures to do with his business ventures, but has either been cleared, or the cases have been dropped due to time constraints.

Berlusconi, who was not in court on Friday to hear the verdict, served as Prime Minister of Italy between 1994 and 1995, 2001 and 2006, and 2008 and 2011, but recently announced that he would not be running for a fourth term.