Italien: Migrantanpassad sexualbrottslagstiftning?

In taking their decision, the supreme court judges noted the fact that the Italian parliament passed a law last year decriminalising the offence of lurking in places frequented by girls in order to be seen masturbating.

They said that on that basis, Pietro L’s sentence should be overturned without further deliberation.

Similar cases around the world have raised eyebrows in recent years, including that of a Swedish man caught masturbating on a beach on Stockholm, who was acquitted of sexual assault on the basis his actions were not directed towards a specific person.

Italy’s highest court has ruled that public masturbation is no longer a crime in Italy, exonerating a 69-year-old man who had been convicted of “autoeroticism” performed in front of a group of female students at the University of Catania last May.

On appeal, Italy’s Supreme Court, or Corte di Cassazione, ruled that public masturbation had actually been decriminalized under 2015’s Legislative Decree 8, though it was still punishable by a fine.

The justices of the Supreme Court have thus eliminated the effects of a criminal conviction for obscene acts in public places (except where minors are involved), and the charges against the man were lowered to a misdemeanor.

Pietro’s jail sentence was thereby commuted into a fine, and the action will be expunged from his criminal record. It is now up to local courts in Catania to determine the exact amount of the administrative fine, stipulated between €5,000 ($5,640) and €30,000 ($33,825).