A court in Italy has sentenced the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to seven years in prison for paying for sex with an underage prostitute and banned him from public office for life. Alan Johnston reports from Milan.
意大利前总理西尔维奥·贝卢斯科尼因同未成年妓女有性交易被法院判处7年监禁,并且终身禁止担任公职。约翰斯顿从米兰报道。
Silvio Berlusconi's lawyers were known to be braced for the worst as they went into the final day of this trial and they needed to be. The judges delivered a crushing verdict on their client. They said he was guilty of paying for sex with an underage prostitute who used to come to his raunchy sexually charged parties and the judges also decided that Mr Berlusconi abused the powers of his prime ministerial office when he tried to get the same 17-year-old out of trouble when she was arrested by the police.
在审判最后一天,贝卢斯科尼的律师已经做好充分准备,迎战最坏结果,他们的确需要如此。法官对他的客户作出了坚决而严肃的判决。并表示贝卢斯科尼有罪是因为他同未成年妓女有性交易,该妓女还曾参与他举办地带有色情性质的聚会。同时法官还判定,贝卢斯科尼担任总理时期滥用职权。该名17岁的妓女曾经被警方逮捕,他曾试图利用职权帮其解围。
The former prime minister has already been sentenced to prison for tax fraud, but correspondents say he's unlikely to ever spend time in jail because of Italy's lengthy appeal system.