Milan - An Italian appeal court overturned a bribery conviction against the media mogul and opposition leader, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, yesterday in a major boost to his credibility.
The court absolved him of one of the four counts of bribery and invoked the statute of limitations to overturn the conviction on the other three. Mr Berlusconi was found guilty in 1998 of complicity in bribing tax inspectors in return for lenient audits at his Fininvest empire, but the appeal court yesterday annulled his sentence of two years and nine months in prison.