In Italy, masturbation in public is no longer a crime, the country’s Supreme Court has ruled according to a report by the Cable News Network (CNN).
The court ruled that such ‘self-service’ in public is not a crime as long as it is not done in the presence of children.
The apex court in the country, La Corte di Cassazione, gave the ruling in the case of a 69-year-old man, simply identified as ‘PL’, who was caught masturbating in Catania, a city on Sicily’s east coast.
The report said the man was convicted in May 2015 after he was caught masturbating in front of students on the University of Catania campus.
He was sentenced to three months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of €3,200 (around $3,600), according to CNN.
PL’s lawyer appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled in his favour in June this year but made its explanation public on why it came up with the ruling.
As a result of a change in the law of the country concerning the act, the court’s judges ruled that public masturbation is no longer considered a crime.
The new law stipulates a prison term of up to four-and-a-half years for those who masturbate in the presence of minors.
The report said the case has now been sent back to local courts in Catania to determine exactly what the administrative fine between €5,000 ($5,651) and €30,000 ($33,912) will be.
Source: BREAKING: Supreme court says public masturbation no longer a crime – Nigeria News Online
