Italy announces ‘Stealing food not a crime for homeless and hungry’

Rome: Roman Ostriakov an Ukrainian national was living rough a life in the northern Italian city of Genoa in 2011. He was caught trying to steal some cheese and sausage worth 4.07 euros ($4.71) from a supermarket, when found guilty of theft he was sentenced to six months in jail and was fined with 100-euro.

The state prosecutor appealed the sentence on a technicality, arguing that he should not have been found ‘guilty of theft’, but rather ‘attempted theft’, because he had been caught before he had left the supermarket premises.
But Italy’s Supreme Court invalidated the verdict.

“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,” it said in a written ruling. ($1 = 0.8635 euros)