Roman
Ostriakov, a homeless man who stole €4.07 ($4.50) worth of cheese and sausage,
is not a thief, Italy’s highest court of appeal ruled Monday.
The Supreme
Court of Cassation threw out Mr. Ostriakov’s theft conviction after a trial
court sentenced him to six months in jail and a €100 ($115) fine in February
2015. The Ukrainian native and his lawyers only sought a more lenient sentence
because he was unable to pay the hefty fine.
But the
court went even further, ruling that Ostriakov’s action in 2011 “does not
constitute a crime” because he stole a small amount of food out of
desperation.
“The condition of the accused and the
circumstances in which he obtained the merchandise show that he took the little
amount of food he needed to overcome his immediate hunger,” the court ruled in
a statement. “People should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small
quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding
themselves.”
Supporters
of the ruling hope Ostriakov’s case will shed light on the extreme poverty and
homelessness in Italy.
In 2015,
more than 1 in 4 Italians lived at or near the poverty leve, as unemployment
lingered around 13 percent, according to reports from the humanitarian
organization Caritas Europa. In 2013, the statistics agency ISTAT told Reuters
that relative poverty in Italy (defined as a family of two living on about
$1,139 a month) was at 12.7 percent , the highest level since the agency
began tracking the data in 1997. And according to the Corriere Della Sera
newspaper, 615 Italians are added “to the ranks of the poor” every
day.
This court
ruling is in sharp contrast with the way many communities treat the hunger in
the United States. As of 2014, 31 US cities restrict sharing food
with the homeless. In Ft. Lauderdale, for example, a 90-year-old man who
violated a citywide law against feeding the homeless faced 60 days in jail and
a $500 fine.
Back in
Italy, the La Stampa newspaper praised the ruling in a front page
editorial: “The court’s decision reminds us all that in a civilized
country no one should be allowed to die of hunger.”
