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CRIME

Rules of Italy’s roads: driver fined over €3k for pee break

A 40-year-old man was slapped with a hefty fine on Monday when he stopped to urinate at the side of a main road in northern Italy.

Published: 30 March 2016 12:43 CEST
Rules of Italy's roads: driver fined over €3k for pee break
A 40-year-old man has been fined for weeing at the side of the S42 main road, pictured above. Photo: Wikimedia

The man was on his way back from spending Easter Monday with friends when he stopped to empty his bladder.

He pulled over to the side of the S42 – a road which passes between the northern cities of Bolzano and Bergamo – just outside the town of Berzo Demo, in the Lombardy province of Brescia.

Unfortunately, a passing police car saw him and issued him with a huge fine for 'acts against public decency'.

Such charges used to carry possible jail sentences in Italy, but earlier this year the government passed changes to legislation which re-classified a number of misdemeanours.

“This type of act was recently decriminalized, which on the one hand means you can't be imprisoned for it, but on the other hand the fines have gone up,” a police spokesperson told La Repubblica.

This is not the only time urinating in public has cost somebody dear in Italy.

Earlier this year, school teacher Stefano Rho was sacked after the school discovered he had a criminal record for peeing in a bush 11 years ago.

After a public campaign, Rho was reinstated.

But it remains to be seen whether the motorist's fine will be reduced or overturned.
 

POLITICS

Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

The president of Italy's northwest Liguria region and the ex-head of Genoa's port were among 10 arrested on Tuesday in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation which also targeted officials for alleged mafia ties.

Published: 7 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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