Francesco Giannuzi, a member of the city council of Bari in Italy, faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years for the alleged theft of a pair of sunglasses in Istanbul.

Giannuzi was at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport waiting for a connecting flight from Dubai to Italy, when he was held for stealing a pair of sunglasses from a duty-free shop on Jan. 7. The prosecutor's office released an indictment yesterday against Giannuzi, asking for a prison term of between five to 10 years on charges of theft. A hearing date is yet to be scheduled for the suspect who was released on bail of TL 50,000 ($8,424) a few days after the incident.

The indictment says Giannuzi picked up a pair of sunglasses from the shop and walked out without paying. The suspect has denied the charges and said in his initial testimony that he left the store with the sunglasses to show them to his wife and was going to return to the store after he stopped at a nearby lavatory. He claimed he may have forgotten the sunglasses in the lavatory.