Salvini wants to ditch the crime of torture, the opposition is unleashed: "He dreams of the Wild West"

We need to “ review, limit and clarify the crime of torture ,” Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini announced yesterday. “It is something that must be done and who else but the League can do it,” he added during an initiative of his party in Montecitorio on the impact of the security decree on the prison sector . For the leader of the Carroccio, the security decree is not a point of arrival, but “ a stage.” “I believe that prison officers are not potential criminals and torturers, but that they carry out a job in very complicated conditions. And end up in the newspapers as torturers with their names and surnames …,” he continued. It is a shame that Salvini himself does not respect the presumption of innocence on his social media profiles, when for example those being investigated for a crime are migrants.

In any case, the announcement has sparked controversy among the opposition. "As Minister of Transport, Salvini should deal with that. I would like to point out to him that it is not the agents in general who are labeled as 'torturers', but those who are criminally prosecuted for this crime, which we will not allow to be touched just for pure political propaganda. My thoughts go to all the victims of torture , starting with those of the massacre in the Santa Maria Capua Vetere institute, and my solidarity also goes to the magistrates who, with their backs straight, do not allow themselves to be intimidated" , the words of the senator of Avs Ilaria Cucchi, sister of the prisoner Stefano Cucchi, who died following a beating by the police after his arrest.

According to Alfredo Bazoli, leader of the Democratic Party in the Justice Commission of Palazzo Madama, " for Salvini, in order to allow the police to do their job seriously, it is necessary to reduce the application of the crime of torture . In short, we must leave a free hand, with all due respect to the liberal principles on which a democratic State is founded, international conventions, common sense. Phrases dictated by an authoritarian attitude that has already manifested itself with the security decree and that raise tension, certainly not helping our public security forces".

According to Riccardo Magi, a member of the +Europa group, "too often we find ourselves faced with cases of actual torture against people who are in prison or under arrest. But this is the Italy that Salvini dreams of, where the law of the strongest prevails like in the Wild West. As far as we are concerned, the crime of torture is untouchable". Forza Italia obviously finds itself in the usual embarrassment of having in certain cases the League as a government ally. And in fact the spokesman for the Azzurri, Raffaele Nevi, questioned about the proposal, said: " We are not prejudiced against it, but things must be done with great care".

In the meantime, yesterday the Minister of Justice Nordio responded to two parliamentary questions from Fratelli d'Italia and the League in the Chamber on legislative initiatives aimed at introducing specific procedural protection for law enforcement officers who act in the performance of their duty or in danger of life. Carlo Nordio argued that " in the criminal procedure code this institution of information of guarantee, which is a due act with consequent registration in the register of suspects, must be changed, it must be changed. Our intention is to intervene in the sense that if a state of necessity or legitimate use of weapons arises, that is, of exculpatory, it is not necessary, indeed it is not necessary to register the person in the register of suspects. This is absolutely not a criminal shield, I want to reiterate this". Yet it has all the characteristics of a criminal shield, in line with the expansion of protections for law enforcement already provided for by the security decree.

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Angela Star