The man was convicted in May 2015 after he performed the act in front of students on the University of Catania campus, according to documents filed with Supreme Court. The man was sentenced to three months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of €3,200 (around $3,600). However, the defendant’s lawyer appealed the case to the country’s highest court, which ruled on the side of the accused in June but only just made its decision public. Judges ruled that public masturbation out of the presence of minors is no longer deemed criminal conduct due to a change in the law last year, which decriminalized the act. The new iteration of the criminal code does call for imprisonment — of up to four-and-a-half years — if the act is witnessed by a minor. In light of this ruling, the court overturned “PL’s” sentence. The case has 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. Public masturbation remains a criminal offense in many other parts of the world, where it can lead to a jail sentence.]]>
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