Magistrates union ANM expressed
bewilderment on Friday over what it described as the
government's attack against a judge, delegitimizing a sentence,
after a Rome court on Thursday sentenced Justice Undersecretary
Andrea Delmastro to a suspended eight-month term for revealing
classified information regarding jailed anarchist Alfredo
Cospito.
"We are bewildered in seeing that, once again, the executive
power attacks a judge to delegitimize a sentence.
"We are disoriented in seeing that the minister of Justice calls
for a sentence to be reformed of which there is nothing but the
ruling", said the National Association of Magistrates after
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio stated on Thursday that he was
disoriented and saddened by Delmastro's conviction for leaking
classified information in a case in which a party colleague
tried to embarrass opposition politicians over visiting jailed
anarchist Alfredo Cospito.
"I am disoriented and saddened by a conviction that affects one
of my dearest and most capable collaborators", Nordio said after
the ruling, which does not include a motivation yet, was issued.
"I trust in a radical reform of the case during the appeal and I
renew my total and unconditional trust in my friend Andrea
Delmastro," said Nordio, who is in the same party, Premier
Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI).
"We will continue to work together for the indispensable and
urgent justice reforms", said Nordio, referring to his plans to
separate the career paths of judges and prosecutors so they can
no longer switch between the two - a reform opposed by the ANM
which says it would weaken the judiciary and would constitute a
first step towards the executive's control over State attorneys.
The judiciary's union has called a strike on Ferbuary 27 against
the Constitutional reform bill, which has so far obtained one of
at least four green lights from parliament.
The ANM on Friday also said that Nordio's statements are "grave,
not suited to the role exercised, in open violation of the
separation of powers, undermining confidence in democratic
institutions".
"To show the uselessness of the separation of careers" of judges
and prosecutors, "it is just necessary to observe the trial that
ended with the conviction of first instance of undersecretary
Delmastro", the ANM's note went on to say, referring to the
conflicting request of the State attorney for the case to be
shelved and the judge's indictment order, which was followed by
the State attorney's request for an acquittal that was overruled
by the judge.
"This shows, as ANM has always claimed, that prosecutors can
demand an acquittal, although their career is not separated from
that of judges, and that a judge is not dominated by the
prosecutor", ANM said in the note
The undersecretary, a member of the FdI party, was found guilty
of leaking information that was potentially embarrassing to the
opposition about the Cospito case to his flat mate and fellow
FdI member Giovanni Donzelli, who sits in the COPASIR
parliamentary committee that oversees Italy's intelligence
services.
Donzelli subsequently disclosed it in parliament.
The prosecutors had requested at the preliminary hearings stage
that the case against the undersecretary be shelved but a judge
said no and ordered them to present an indictment request.
In January 2023 Donzelli told parliament that Cospito, who was
on hunger strike at the time to protest against the 41 bis jail
regime he is being held under, had talked to mafia bosses about
getting the treatment abolished.
After Thursday's verdict Delmastro said he hoped he would be
acquitted on appeal and would not resign as the sentence was
politically motivated.
"A political sentence! Sentences are not commented on, but
political ones speak for themselves! And this sentence speaks
for itself!," Delmastro said on social media.
Premier Giorgia Meloni described the ruling as shocking and said
Delmastro was not going to leave his post amid opposition calls
for his resignation or dismissal.
"I am shocked by the conviction of Undersecretary Andrea
Delmastro, for whom the public prosecutor had initially
requested archiving and subsequently acquittal. I wonder if the
judgment is really based on the merit of the matter.
Undersecretary Delmastro remains in his position", she said.
The judges of the eighth criminal section of the Rome court
recognized in Delmastro mitigating circumstances, the suspension
of the sentence and applied a one-year ban from public office.
They rejected requests for compensation advanced by the civil
parties, four parliamentarians of the largest member of the
opposition, the Democratic Party (PD).
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