Ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Linked to Mafia, Court Rules

Silvio Berlusconi, who was prime minister of Italy three times between 1994 and 2011, faced dozens of legal cases, mostly for bribery or fraud linked to his business interests.

He often portrayed himself as the innocent victim of left-wing magistrates with a political agenda.

Berlusconi was convicted of corporate tax fraud in 2013 and was forced out of parliament, but he avoided jail time.

He was also convicted of paying a senator a bribe of three million euros to quit the government, but the conviction was later overturned.

Berlusconi was acquitted of abusing the powers of the prime minister's office and of bribing witnesses to lie about the "bunga bunga" parties.

He was long suspected of links to the mafia, but was never tried.

The Italian highest appeals court has ruled that Dell'Utri was responsible for Berlusconi's hiring of a Cosa Nostra member as his stable master at his villa outside Milan.

The court stated that Berlusconi had paid "conspicuous sums" in protection money to the mafia over a period of two decades.