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Wow, what a great story!

I'm surprised the thief only served seven months in jail. I can't imagine it being that lenient today.

I was half expecting some crazy penalty like life imprisonment or death. Made me realise how out of touch I am with early 19th century Europe!

20th century

OK that's embarrassing!

Yep, well also...it was a victimless crime. No one was physically harmed.

Or maybe they give leniency for the "dude - you have balls of steel" factor...

Things would've gone a bit harder for him if he'd been extradited to France, I suspect.

In Italy, he could play up the Ollie North angle ("I'm a patriot, dammit!")

It makes me feel uncomfortable that sentences for crimes are orders of magnitude different depending on where you are being tried.

I guess different communities have different weightings on certain crimes.

/me shoots some heroin into his eyeball

Assassinate a world leader and you're a criminal in his home country but a hero to his enemies.

Italy in 1913 was nominally an ally of Germany and Austria, but in truth more closely allied with France. It's possible that the French and Italian authorities wanted to avoid a public spectacle that would inflame nationalists in both countries and make it more difficult to keep Italy a defacto French ally.

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