Berlusconi verdict a blow for PM A woman celebrates outside court after Silvio Berlusconi was found guilty. Photo: Reuters/Alessandro Garofalo Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta is facing discord in his already rickety government after his coalition partner, Silvio Berlusconi, was convicted of paying a minor for sex and sentenced to seven years in prison. The verdict, announced Monday by Judge Giulia Turri in Milan, was criticised by Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano and Renato Brunetta, chief whip of Berlusconi's People of Liberty (PDL) party, the second-largest in the lower house of Parliament. Mr Letta's Democratic Party said it would respect the decision. Berlusconi has said he is innocent and remains free as he prepares his appeal. That could take years, and Berlusconi may be spared prison because offenders over the age of 70 are often given house arrest if verdicts are upheld. Still, the legal battle is exposing fault lines in the coalition assembled just two months ago. "Letta's going to have to fight very hard to keep his boat on course," said James Walston, a professor at the American University in Rome. The ruling "makes the Berlusconi supporters all the more hyped up and angry, and they're going to be a lot tougher on completely irrelevant issues." Mr Alfano said the verdict went against common sense and caused "deep bitterness and immense pain" to the PDL. One member of Mr Letta's government, Deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Archi, was among more than 30 witnesses against whom Justice Turri urged prosecutors to seek perjury charges. Berlusconi's legal problems may continue to disturb the government as Mr Letta, 46, seeks to build consensus around a set of tax cuts and spending reductions to help pull Italy out of a recession. Berlusconi is preparing appeals for tax fraud and wiretapping convictions in two separate, unrelated cases, and Naples prosecutors announced in February he was under investigation on suspicion of corruption in Parliament. The conviction came even after Karima El Mahroug, the woman at the centre of the case, denied she had sex with Berlusconi. The former prime minister has said he gave her €57,000 ($81,000) to help her set up a business and avoid prostituting herself. "It's not just an instance of bad justice, it's an offence to all Italians who believed in me," Berlusconi said in an emailed statement. I intend to resist this persecution because I am absolutely innocent and I don't want to in any way abandon my battle to make Italy a truly free and just country. Mr Letta and his Democratic Party were thrown together with the PDL in April to resolve a two-month impasse. The rival camps were forced to team up after losing ground in the February general election, in which former comedian Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement won a quarter of the votes. "This is going to be a blow for Letta's government but not a final blow," Giovanni Orsina, a history professor at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome, said before the verdict.