Italian wife faces prison after husband complains she didn't do housework

An Italian wife faces prison after her husband claimed she abused him by not cleaning and cooking enough, European media reported.

The husband claimed his 40-year-old wife failed to sufficiently clean the home for two years, causing unsanitary living conditions, according to il Fatto Quotidiano.

She also sometimes kicked him out of the bedroom, the husband said, and caused groceries he purchased to go to waste.

The Telegraph reports that the wife  could serve between two and six years behind bars if found guilty of breaking an Italian law that “punishes whoever mistreats a person in their family or a person entrusted to them for reasons of education, care or custody.”

The husband, 47, accused his wife of “bad management of domestic affairs,” according to the British newspaper.

The couple lives in the town of Sonnino about 75 miles southeast of Rome.

A formal complaint made to police by the husband was referred to judicial authorities, the Telegraph reported, who sent the dispute to trial.

Judge Mara Mattioli, a woman, will preside over the Oct. 12 case, according to the Telegraph, which goes on to cite commentary from the Italian newspaper Il Tempo:

“It’s a case that seems to have come from the 1950s and not from a country where equality between the sexes should be a given.”