An Italian woman who made anonymous calls to her lover’s wife to tell her of their affair has been told she must pay a US$445 fine for harassment. The woman, named locally as Annamaria D.R., also told her lover’s wife about other affairs her husband had allegedly been having in Bari and Potenza, southern Italy.

She argued in court during an appeal hearing that because her lover’s wife did not hang up on her calls immediately, it was clear she was interested in what was being said.

The mistress tried to overturn a conviction of harassment originally issued by the Court of Potenza in 2013.

However, Italy’s Supreme Court in Rome ruled that the fact the wife did not interrupt the calls “cannot be seen as acquiescence on the wife’s part, given the serious nature of what was being revealed.”

“The petulant and disturbing nature of the calls is shown in the anonymous forms they took,” said the ruling.

The court upheld the original conviction of harassment, with judges saying that an anonymous call to reveal an affair is a reprehensible act regardless of whether the claim is true.

The mistress called her lover’s wife a total of three times, once from her office phone and twice from her mobile, to tell her that her husband had betrayed her many times and continued to do so. One call lasted 28 minutes, another 11 minutes.

The wife, who cannot be named due to privacy laws, later decided to file a complaint and requested the examination of her phone records to trace the call.

According to a 2010 survey, half of Italians have extramarital affairs. The study by the Italian Association for Family Lawyers found that 55 percent of men and 45 percent of women cheat on their wives or husbands.

In around half of cases, cheating partners are found out through indiscreet mobile phone text messages, emails betray one in five and a further one in 10 are given away by anonymous letters.

意大利一名女子给情人的妻子打匿名电话，揭露他们的情事，被法院以骚扰罪判处445美元的罚款。

这位名叫安娜玛利亚的女子同时还在电话里向情人的妻子揭露了其夫在意大利南部城市巴里和波坦察有过的风流韵事。

这名女子在法庭上诉中表示，情人的妻子并没有立即挂断她的电话，很明显是对自己所说的内容很感兴趣。

这名女子试图推翻波坦察法院在2013年对其作出的骚扰罪判决。

不过，位于罗马的意大利最高法院判决称，“鉴于当时电话中所说事情的严重性，”那位妻子没有挂断电话“并不能被看做默许。”

判决书表示：“匿名电话的任性、骚扰本质已显露无疑。”

法庭维持了原判，法官表示，用匿名电话揭露婚外情是一种不道德的行为，无论揭露的事实是否属实。

这名女子一共给她情人的妻子打了三次电话，一次从办公室电话打出，两次用她的手机打出，在电话中她对那位妻子表示，她的丈夫已经背叛过她很多次，而且并未停手。有一通电话持续了28分钟，还有一通持续了11分钟。

那位妻子，因为隐私法原因不能透露其姓名，后来决定提起诉讼，并要求对其通话记录进行彻查以追踪到呼叫人。

据2010年的一项调查显示，半数意大利人有过婚外情。由意大利家庭律师协会进行的这项调查同时发现，55%的男性和45%的女性都曾出轨。

在半数的出轨案件中，出轨一方是被言辞不检的手机短信出卖的，被邮件出卖者占五分之一，另有十分之一是被匿名信揭露的。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

    【默许】mòxǔ acquiescence agreeing to something by being silent

    【任性的】rènxìng de petulant irritable, impatient, or sullen in a peevish or capricious way