BARCELONA, Spain – In Italy, where political parties, public officials and lawmakers are renowned for pilfering millions in public funds, news that a court pardoned a homeless Ukrainian man for stealing less than five dollars of food out of hunger has been widely welcomed. Roman Ostriakov, 36, was caught shoplifting at a supermarket in Genoa in 2011, stealing two pieces of cheese, sausages worth just over four euros and paying only for some breadsticks he had bought. Last year he was sentenced to six months in jail and a fine of 100 euros, which he did not have. But Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation on Monday overturned the verdict, saying there could not be punishment for stealing a small amount of food “to take care of the essential need of eating.” Angela Nicosia, a house maid in San Giovanni la Punta near the city of Catania in southern Italy, told Rudaw the court made the right decision. “It was the right thing to do by the court. There is a lot of poverty in Italy and the state does not help. The ones that should go to jail are the politicians and the ones that are in the government,” she said. “Stealing is not right. But forced by hunger, one can arrive at this situation,” Nicosia told Rudaw in a telephone interview. Rita Mazzola, an Italian middle class pensioner who became a widow at a very young age with two children, echoed similar sentiments. “Thinking of my life when my husband died -- if I had not found a job -- then I would have done anything to feed my children, even stealing,” she said. “In Italy we say that the one who steals an apple attracts the full rage of the law, but the one who has contacts and money gets away with anything,” she told Rudaw. The Italian Court of Auditors said this year that corruption costs Italy $60 billion each year – a whopping 4 percent of its GDP. Italy ranks 61 out of 174 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception’s Index, equal with Senegal, Montenegro and South Africa. Italy remains the eurozone’s third largest economy. Newspapers in Italy have reacted to the news of the Ukrainian man’s ordeal, and an opinion piece in Il Corriere della Sera pointed out that in Italy, 615 people fall below the poverty line every day. The paper also criticized that the case of the man took three rounds in the courts before it was overturned. Another Italian newspaper, La Stampa, said the ruling in favor of the man was a victory for compassion. “In a civilized country nobody should be allowed to die of hunger,” the paper said.
