Prostitution never totally free choice - top court

(ANSA) - Rome, June 7 - The choice to engage in prostitution is never totally free, Italy's top court the Constitutional Court said Friday.
    It said the choice of selling sex is almost always determined by factors that limit and condition the individual's freedom of self-determination.
    This was true "even at this historic moment," it said.
    The ruling did not regard cases of enforced prostitution, the court said.
    "In this matter, the very boundary between authentically free decisions and decisions that are not so is often labile," the court said.
    The Court was ruling in a case involving escorts used by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi in 2008-9, provided by Puglia businessman Giampaolo Tarantini, that upheld the Merlin Law against favouring prostitution.
    photo: Berlusconi and escort Patrizia D'Addario