Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, Criminal Section III, No. 3114/1993, 7 December 1993

Recourse against conviction for the (now repealed) crime of rape against a person under the age of fourteen. Cultural factors that influenced the commission of the crime and ignorance of the criminal law.

Art. 5 Italian criminal code
Art. 519 Italian criminal code (repealed)

The general principle that ignorance of criminal law is inexcusable, enshrined in article 5 of the Italian criminal code, also applies to a foreign national who cites as justification for an offence the mere difference between Italian criminal law and that of his/her country of origin.

(The defendant, a Moroccan citizen, had committed presumed rape – provided for by the repealed article 519, par. 2, n. 1 of the Italian criminal code – against a person under the age of fourteen and defended himself by arguing that in Morocco sexual relations with minors are considered lawful and thus he was in a situation of ignorance of Italian criminal law. This defensive assumption was not considered relevant by the Court of Cassation, in application of the above exposed principle.)