Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was Friday acquitted of corruption charges by a court in Milan. The verdict was hailed as a victory by the business mogul turned premier and marked the final act in the high profile four-year- long trial. "Better late than never," said Berlusconi after the sentence was read out by judge Francesco Castellaneta. "I was right to be serene all along. Deep down I knew I had done nothing wrong," he said. The trial, known as the SME case, revolved around accusations that Berlusconi's Fininvest company had paid off judges to determine the outcome of a legal battle over the privatization of a state-owned food company called SME, back in the mid-1980s. Berlusconi had also been accused of keeping judges in Rome on his company payroll until 1991. But judges ruled Friday that the business mogul turned premier should be cleared of accusations that he had attempted to "fix" the SME case and that the other charges should now be declared statute-barred. Berlusconi had always protested his innocence, arguing that he was the victim of a vendetta by left-wing magistrates. --mor 2321 Local Time 2021 GMT
