Almasri case: Nordio defends Bartolozzi: "He was following my orders."

"After continuous, public, and uninterrupted reporting on the role of my chief of staff, Dr. Giusi Bartolozzi , I read the ministers' tribunal's reasoning and the inferences drawn from it by some newspapers. Just as President Meloni found it surreal that her ministers acted without her consent, I too find it puerile to suggest that my chief of staff acted independently. I reiterate that all, absolutely all, of his actions were in compliance with my orders, for which I obviously assume political and legal responsibility." This was stated by Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on the Almasri case.

"The mere suggestion, which I learned with horror," he emphasized in a statement, "that a possible indictment of my collaborator is a ploy to assign to the criminal jurisdiction a task that is now purely parliamentary, horrifies me, because it would constitute a political exploitation of the justice system. I hope these insinuations will end, and that Parliament, in accordance with the Constitutional Law, will definitively rule on the role of my ministry, of which, I repeat, I am the sole and responsible head."