News Supreme Court rulings November 2017

Condominium: insistently ringing the doorbell is a crime

In ruling number 26336/2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the conduct of someone who repeatedly rings a neighbor’s doorbell can constitute harassment or disturbance of persons.

The Supreme Court thus upheld a man’s conviction for his uncontrolled use of a woman’s apartment doorbell, placing the victim in an “uncomfortable condition” and “altering her normal conditions of tranquility.”

In-hospital alcohol testing: legal counsel needed if the decision to conduct it was made by the judicial police

Before being subjected to a hospital alcohol test, the motorist should necessarily be advised that he or she may be assisted by an attorney if the alcohol test is ordered at the request of the criminal police.

This was established by the Supreme Court in ruling no. 51284/2017, which pointed out that, for the purposes of the aforementioned duty to inform, it is necessary to keep a distinction between two hypotheses: one in which the blood sampling by which the state of intoxication will be ascertained would have been carried out in any case as part of the medical treatment to be given to the injured person, and the other in which, on the other hand, the sampling is carried out solely and exclusively because the judicial police requested it.

Hitting vital areas is attempted murder

The Sept. 19, 2017, ruling No. 42797 of the Supreme Court enunciated the offensive potential of the weapon, the area of the blows delivered to the victim, and the force and number of them depose toward a manifest intent to kill that goes far beyond the crime of injury, making it constitute attempted murder.

The court thus ruled on the case of a man who had inflicted as many as 20 blows with a screwdriver on the offended person, both to the face and head, in order to steal his wallet.