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| Silvio Berlusconi sex conviction overturned | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Italian former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has won an appeal against his conviction for paying for sex with an underage prostitute. | |
| His seven-year prison sentence has now been thrown out by judges in Milan, in the so-called "Ruby" case. | |
| Last year a court found that he had paid for sex with a 17-year-old nightclub dancer, Karima El-Mahroug, known as "Ruby the Heartstealer". | |
| Berlusconi is doing community service after being sentenced for tax fraud. | |
| That was a separate case involving his business empire Mediaset. Berlusconi, 77, helps out once a week at a home for people with Alzheimer's disease. | |
| He began doing that service in May - and so far it is the only final judgment against him, despite various other court cases. | |
| 'Bunga-bunga' reports | |
| In the Ruby case both Berlusconi and Ms El-Mahroug denied having had sex. | |
| During the trial reports emerged of raunchy "bunga-bunga" parties at his private villa attended by showgirls. Some of the female guests however described them as "elegant dinner parties". | |
| Berlusconi was also acquitted of a charge that he abused his prime ministerial powers by pressuring the police to free Ms El-Mahroug when she was in custody. | |
| In another separate case he is accused of having bribed a senator. | |
| As a result of the conviction over Mediaset he was banned from holding political office for two years and expelled from the Senate. |