Italy's Berlusconi to end social service earlier

Italian three-time former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will end his one year of social work, in relation to a tax-fraud conviction, 45 days earlier than planned, a judge here ruled on Monday.

According to the ruling, Berlusconi can stop helping the elderly and the disabled at a non-profit facility near Milan by March 8, local reports said.

The decision was taken by Judge Beatrice Crosti because of Berlusconi's good behavior while serving his sentence, according to the Milan-based Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The leader of center-right Forza Italia (FI) party, a major opposition force in parliament, will be also allowed to leave Lombardy region, the capital of which is Milan, and travel across Italy.

Berlusconi was not allowed to leave Lombardy without authorization, though could go to Italy's capital Rome from Tuesday to Thursday to carry out his political activity.

In 2013, the Italian supreme court rejected Berlusconi's final appeal against a verdict which sentenced him to four years in jail for inflating prices in the purchase of rights to U.S. movies for his media company in order to dodge taxes.

The verdict, which was commuted to one year under an amnesty law, was Berlusconi's first final guilty conviction in some 20 years of fighting legal cases and led to him being ejected from parliament and banned from holding public office.

However, Berlusconi, 78, was too old to go to jail under Italian legal practice, thus was sentenced to social work once a week. Endit