Mom is no longer synonymous with pickpockets escaping prison

[ad_1]

A serial pickpocket who robbed a tourist in central Rome earlier this year is finally facing jail after using her motherhood as an excuse to avoid incarceration for a decade. Italian police say Anna Zahirovic was convicted of 148 thefts but had avoided prison for more than a decade because she was either pregnant or a mother of a young child.

The 31-year-old Romanian Croatian was arrested at a camp on the outskirts of the Italian capital, police said. Italian lawmakers are debating a bill that would allow judges to jail mothers of young children rather than release them as current law requires.

Article Content

Zashirovich was known as the “pickpocket girl” because she was caught stealing in a supermarket in Rome when she was seven years old, and her career of stealing began from then on.
By the time she was a teenager, she had been charged with more than 30 thefts.

Her latest criminal record came on June 22, when she and an accomplice were arrested for robbing a tourist on the streets of central Rome, according to The Times of London. But she again avoided jail time because she had given birth to her tenth child, a daughter, a month earlier.

The tough stance was criticized by Italy’s opposition parties, with one lawmaker accusing supporters of being blinded by “punitive zeal”.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi also vowed to set up a special police task force to combat pickpocketing at metro and train stations in Rome, Milan and Naples after a series of attacks on tourists and clashes between pickpocket gangs in Italy led to the temporary closure of some metro stations.

Share this article on your social network

[ad_2]

Source link