Calling your annoying neighbour a mafioso constitutes the offence of defamation
Provocation cannot be invoked when threats are dated
Be careful not to exaggerate in condominium disputes: calling mafioso the neighbour configures the crime of defamation. This is what the Court of Cassation confirmed in relation to the conviction before the Justice of the Peace of a condominium owner who had offended the reputation of a neighbour and the owner who had rented his flat to him, by sending them and the administrator an e-mail containing insulting epithets, accompanied by a warning and a lawsuit. He disagreed in detail with the fact that the flat next to his had been rented to a person who, according to him, did not have moral requirements.
The condemned man appealed for legitimacy, complaining that the sentence was unjust, claiming that the expressions contained in the e-mail could not be considered offensive and that no account had been taken of the fact that he himself had suffered threats from his neighbour.
Offensive epithets
The Court of Cassation (Fifth Criminal Section, judgment 8821/2026) dismissed the appeal. Firstly, it stated that the judge was right to find offensive the epithets addressed by the appellant to his neighbour, whom he described as "toxic", "alcoholic", "socially dangerous", "often in a state of violent drunkenness and potentially dangerous and borderline", adding that he had been threatened by him "in perfect Mafia style". The Court described these phrases as offensive, with particular reference to the accusation made against the neighbour of manifesting the characteristics of mafia.
The condominium tenant's conduct could not be justified, even towards the unwitting owner of the property, by reference to the emission of noise nuisance, which he had not proved, among other things.
No provocation recognised
The Supreme Court stated that provocation could not be invoked under Article 599 of the Criminal Code, due to the absence of proof of the unjust act to which the defendant would react. For the recognition of the exemption of provocation in offences against honour, it is not necessary that the reaction be carried out at the same time as the offence was received, it being sufficient that it take place as long as the state of anger aroused by the provocative fact lasts.
