ROME: Italy's supreme court is due on Tuesday to consider Silvio Berlusconi's final appeal against a tax fraud conviction which, if upheld, could see him barred from public office for five years and play havoc within the fragile coalition government.

In by far the most important legal verdict the former prime minister has pending, the court of cassation is scheduled to decide whether or not to confirm the convictions of two lower courts, which have already found Berlusconi guilty of the charges - first in October last year and then again in May.

If the judges agree with those verdicts, they are also likely to enforce the requested sentences of four years in prison and a five-year ban on holding public office.

The former is unlikely to cause the 76-year-old to lose much sleep as prisoners of his age rarely go to jail in Italy and, due to a 2006 amnesty law, he would be more likely to spend a year under some form of house arrest.

But the latter could effectively bring an end to the political career of a man who, for better or worse, still plays a highly influential role in his country's affairs.

As head of the centre-right Freedom People (PdL) party, the main partner in centre-left prime minister Enrico Letta's government, Berlusconi is still capable of bringing down the coalition by withdrawing his support, should the moment suit him.

However, as the date of the cassation hearing has approached, speculation has mounted that a decision could in fact be postponed.

In an interview with the rightwing Libero newspaper on Sunday, which was subsequently dismissed as an informal conversation by Berlusconi's entourage, the billionaire media tycoon said he was optimistic the judges would acquit him.

But if they did not, he added, with trademark bombast, he would dare them to put him behind bars.

“I will not go into exile like Bettino Craxi was forced to,” he was quoted as saying, referring to Italy's disgraced former prime minister - and friend of Berlusconi - who fled to Tunisia and died in exile. “I will also not accept being handed over to social services, like a criminal that has to be re-educated,” he said. “If they convict me, if they take on that responsibility, I'll go to jail.”

Berlusconi has always denied the tax fraud charges, which date back more than a decade and are in connection with the purchase of broadcasting rights by his television empire, Mediaset.

By arrangement with the Guardian