According to the Italian Law, failure to pay children maintenance contribution is considered an offence that can be prosecuted ex officio.
On 4th of September 2019, Criminal Section of Italian Court of Cassation has excluded the extinguishment of non-payment child maintenance offence through the remission of the lawsuit. Italian Supreme Court has confirmed that non-payment child maintenance offence is prosecuted ex officio.
Italian Court of Cassation set aside first instance judgement where defendant was found not guilty of failure to pay children maintenance contribution. In such scenario, Italian jurisprudence has applied recent art. 570 bis of Italian criminal code that states: “Article 570 sanctions will be applied to spouse that eludes obligation of any sort of maintenance contribution in relation to marriage termination, marriage annulment and separation”
In such context, art 7, Legislative Decree No. 21/2018 has determined a legislative realignment framing such offences in the context of articles 570 and 570 bis Italian Criminal code avoiding enforcement fragmentation.
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