Sophia Loren jailed on tax charge

Press, 21 May 1982, Page 7

Sophia Loren jailed on tax charge

NZPA-Reuter Rome Sophia Loren, clutching flowers from her fans, went behind bars yesterday to begin serving a one-month jail sentence for failing to file an Italian income tax return 19 years ago.

The 47-year-old actress flew from Geneva to Rome and was then driven under police escort to Caserta Prison near Naples. Just before she disappeared inside the prison gates, watched by a milling crowd of reporters and photographers. someone asked her if she felt calm. “How could I feel calm at a time like this?” she said. The flowers were given to Miss Loren by fans in Geneva before she left Rome, where she told airport reporters:

"It is unjust. I paid taxes. Now. because of a small error, I must go to prison. It is a traumatic experience.” But she said she would serve her sentence rather than be barred from Italy for the rest of her life. Miss Loren was found guilty in 1980 after a lengthy court case of failing to file an income tax return for 1963. She said her tax advisers had wrongly told her she need not do so because she was working abroad.

Miss Loren told reporters in Geneva she had decided to return to Italy to resolve “an unjust situation due to a little mistake by a tax specialist. This man is now dead — may he rest in peace — but now I have to go to prison."

“I think the impact (of being jailed) will be a traumatising thing ..." she said. “Please, let's not fall into vulgarity,” she replied when asked whether her move was a publicity stunt for her next movie, Lina Wertmuller's “Tieta do Agreste," being filmed in Brazil. The movie is based on a book by a Brazilian novelist, Jorge Amado,and describes the saga of a country girl who goes to the city, and founds a luxurious brothel, telling the people back home she is married to a wealthy politician. She sends fund's back home to build a new church and renovate the town, but is eventually discovered.

Born in Rome on September 20, 1934, Miss Loren — then Sophia Scicolone — grew up in Pozzuoli, a small town on the Gulf of Naples. She has said she considers Naples her home city. In one of her films, ‘Marriage Italian Style,” Miss Loren also was sen-

tenced to serve time in a Naples prison. But she never served a day, because every time she was about to enter jail she became pregnant. Miss Loren and her husband. the producer. Carlo Ponti. have had a series of problems with the Italian authorities. In 1977, Miss Loren was stopped by police and held for six hours at Rome airport during an investigation into alleged tax and currency violations by the couple. The couple gave up their Italian citizenship after Ponti's Mexican divorce from his first wife was not recognised in Italy. Recently an appeals court cleared Ponti of charges that he illicitly obtained Government subsidies for making films.