News Supreme Court rulings February 2018

Blocking the road by preventing another car from passing is private violence

In ruling no. 5358/2018 the Supreme Court held that the elements of the crime of private violence by a motorist who, out of spite, occupies the road by preventing another car from passing through were integrated.

The case arose out of an argument between two motorists at the outcome of which one of them, with his own car, obstructed, for an appreciable amount of time (about seven to eight minutes according to witnesses), the transit of the other.

Driving under the influence also in the head of the drunk cyclist

The crime of driving under the influence of alcohol under Article 187 of the Highway Code is committed by a drunk cyclist who causes an accident due to an altered mental and physical state that is later confirmed in a blood sample.

Judgment no. 6119/2018 of the Supreme Court thus governed the case of a bicyclist who, driving his vehicle drunkenly along with another person, proceeding in a zig-zag, hit the rearview mirror of a car he had pulled alongside with his handlebars, thus causing his vehicle to fall to the ground.

On this occasion, the Court clarified that the blood sample taken by health officials at the request of the judicial police for the purpose of blood alcohol testing can be used even in the absence of a verbally expressed consent of the person concerned, provided that the person concerned has not explicitly refused.

A phone call is sufficient to integrate the crime of harassment

According to the Supreme Court, the crime of harassment is not necessarily habitual in nature and can also be integrated by a single action that meets all the requirements of the case.

Judgment no. 6064/2018 thus ruled on the appeal filed by the defendant who, on the merits of the case, had been convicted of making, out of petulance or other blameworthy motive, three telephone calls that were silent, or otherwise characterized by references to persons known to the complainant, as well as for sending text messages directed to the offending party’s registered user.