Italy’s high court overturns conviction of homeless thief
Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation has overturned the conviction of a homeless thief, saying what he did in 2011 was “not a crime.”
The court on Monday overturned the conviction of Ukrainian national Roman Ostriakov who was found guilty of theft and sentenced to six months in jail plus a 100-euro fine in 2011.
The Ukrainian had attempted to steal two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages, all together costing less than USD five, from a Genoa supermarket in northern Italy.
"The condition of the accused and the circumstances in which he obtained the merchandise show that he had taken the little amount of food he needed to overcome his immediate and essential requirement for nourishment," the high court stated in a written ruling.
Due to the thief’s vital need for food, the theft “was not a crime,” the ruling read.
The case went through three rounds in appellation courts before reaching the final ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation.
Corriere Della Sera daily newspaper said statistics suggest that each day hundreds of Italians sink into poverty and the judges should have noted that reality before annulling the verdict.
Another Italian newspaper, La Stampa, criticized the Supreme Court judges, saying the "right to survival prevails over property" for these judges.
Interestingly, the only reason that this particular case reached Italy’s Supreme Court was because the state prosecutor referred it to high court due to a legal technicality, arguing that Ostriakov should not have been found guilty of theft, but rather he was guilty of the lesser crime of attempted theft, because he had been caught before he had left the supermarket premises.
Ostriakov’s case, which is just one of numerous instances of stealing food due to hunger, reminds one of Jean Valjean, the fictional character and the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Miserables.
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