Bossi gets 18 months for Napolitano slur

(ANSA) - Rome, September 22 - The former leader of the Northern League party, Umberto Bossi, on Tuesday received an 18-month sentence for insulting Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in 2011.
    Bossi's offence was ruled to have been aggravated by a "racial" slur because the often foul-mouthed veteran firebrand called the Naples-born Neapolitano a "terrone", northern Italian epithet for "dirty southerner".
    On December 29, 2011, Bossi made a rally laugh when he sent a sarcastic greeting to the Neapolitan head of State, using the Latin tag "nomen omen" ("it's all in the name") to criticise his provenance from the troubled southern city.
    "I didn't know he was a 'terrone'," he added to further chuckles.
    Bossi, who stepped down as leader of the movement he founded after a string of corruption and nepotism scandals in 2012, was also charged with trying to bring Italy's institutions into disrepute.
    Sentences under two years are not served custodially according to Italy's legal system.