It now looks quite possible that 76-year old Mr Berlusconi, a billionaire through his Mediaset business, could end up in prison within weeks. His lawyers had appealed against a four-year prison sentence which had been handed down to him for tax fraud. In the normal course of events, Italians have two chances of appeal after receiving sentence and the process can take up to ten years. During that period the sentence is usually not executed. Exceptions to this slow timetable are very rare - so the Berlusconi case sets what could be a worrying precedent for other business people.

Astonished

'I have never seen a hearing programmed as quickly as this. I am astonished,' Franco Coppi, one of Mr Berlusconi's lawyers, told Reuters. 'This is a real squeeze on the rights of the defence.'  The minister for constitutional reform Gaetano Quagliariello, a member of Berlusconi's People of Liberty party, said in an interview which was transcribed on Giornalettismo: 'One can only hope that people will realise that the question of justice is not only a problem for Silvio Berlusconi or the centre-right but is affecting our whole state.'  Miscarriages of justice are not uncommon - in both crime and business prosecutions. The Amanda Knox conviction, for instance, is viewed as grossly unfair by many Americans.