2007-09-26 18:10
Friar rapped for verbal abuse
Dominican told police 'don't break my balls'
(ANSA) - Rome, September 26 - Italy's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld
a penalty against a Dominican friar who told police not to "break my balls".
The friar, identified as Giordano G., was convicted last year of
insulting officers after they entered his drug rehab community for a night-time
check.
Friar Giordano appealed against the March 2006 sentence, pleading with
the appeals judges that his words "had no offensive content because the phrase
in question has become such a common expletive as to render it innocuous".
The judges took a different view, upholding the cleric's earlier
conviction for abusing public servants.
Wednesday's sentence clashed with a recent widely publicised ruling from
the precedent-setting organ, which pronounced this summer that the V-word -
Italy's equivalent of the F-word - was no longer to be considered an insult
because it was now so commonly used.
POINTER:
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2007-09-26_126124719.html
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