Security Decree, from mothers detained to passive resistance. Here are the rules
In total, 14 new crimes are introduced and 9 additional aggravating circumstances. In 39 articles, the security decree, which replaced the bill approved in first reading in the Chamber and then 'stranded' in the Senate also following the objections raised by the Quirinal, rewrites several articles of the penal code and criminal procedure, providing for new crimes that range from passive resistance to the renamed 'anti-Gandhi law' by the opposition , to the crackdown on light cannabis, to a new regime for detained mothers and the so-called 'anti-No-Tav and anti-No-Ponte' laws.
Even on the aggravating front, new cases are added , such as those foreseen for crimes committed near train or subway stations or those related to fraud against the elderly. The non-punishability of the actions of intelligence agents is then extended and the evictions of occupied properties are speeded up.
The decree substantially reproduces the contents of the security bill: comparing the texts of the two provisions, there are 12 articles that have undergone changes, even minimal ones, compared to the original text.
Among the most significant changes are the rules on mothers who are prisoners and those relating to telephone SIM cards for non-EU citizens.
- Fight against terrorism and organized crime. The decree introduces new types of crime, such as possession of material for the purpose of terrorism, which is punishable by imprisonment from 2 to 6 years, and the online dissemination of instructions for committing violent acts or sabotage (art. 270-quinquies.3 cp). In the fight against organized crime, anti-mafia checks are also extended to companies that adhere to the 'network contract'. It is excluded that the prefect can proceed ex officio to limit some effects of the anti-mafia interdiction information in order to guarantee adequate means of subsistence for the family members of the recipient of the same.
- Fight against usury. Article 33 of the provision provides that economic operators who are victims of the crime of usury, beneficiaries of loans granted pursuant to Article 14 of Law 108/1996, be supported by an expert charged with assisting them in the process of economic recovery and reintegration into the legal circuit.
- House occupations. The crime of arbitrary occupation of property is created and the possibility for the judicial police to order the immediate release of the occupied property is foreseen, even without a judge's warrant, in the case of illegitimate occupations.
- Protections for law enforcement. Criminal protection for police forces is strengthened and penalties for injuries, resistance and violence against a public official are increased. An aggravating circumstance is introduced if the act is committed against an officer or agent of the judicial police or public safety with an increase in penalty of up to half and a further aggravating circumstance in the case of violent acts committed in order to prevent the construction of an infrastructure. The possibility of equipping the police forces with wearable video surveillance devices (bodycam), suitable for recording operational activity in the services of maintaining public order, territorial control, surveillance of sensitive sites and in the railway sector and on board trains is envisaged and that of using video surveillance devices, including wearable ones, in places and environments in which people subjected to restrictions of personal freedom are held. Financial support is also introduced for legal expenses of up to 10,000 euros for officers involved in criminal proceedings relating to the service.
- Prisons and migrant centers. The new crime of 'riot within a penitentiary institution' is born, which punishes the conduct of promoting, organizing or directing and participating in a riot carried out within an institution "by three or more people gathered together, through acts of violence or threats, attempts to escape or acts of resistance, even passive, that prevent the performance of official or service acts necessary for the management of order and security". It provides for imprisonment from 1 to 5 years (prison) or 1 to 4 years (CPR) for those who participate with violence, threats or resistance to authority and up to 18 years of imprisonment when the riot causes death or serious injury.
- Protests in the streets and railway blockades. A new aggravating circumstance is provided for non-negligent crimes against life and public and individual safety, against personal freedom and against property, or which in any case offend property, if committed inside or in the immediate vicinity of railway and subway stations or inside trains used for passenger transport. The penalty for the crime of damage during public demonstrations is also increased. The so-called urban Daspo is extended to those who have been reported or convicted, even with a non-final sentence, in the previous five years, for crimes against the person or against property committed in internal areas and in the appurtenances of railway, airport, maritime and local, urban and extra-urban public transport infrastructures. Deferred arrest in flagrante delicto is extended to the crime of serious or very serious personal injury to a public official in the service of public order, committed during demonstrations in a public place or open to the public. Article Article 14 of the decree transforms into a crime (previously it was only an administrative offence) the impediment to free movement on roads or rails, as in the case of climate activists.
- Begging and fraud. More severe penalties for those who employ minors in begging and for those who commit fraud. The tools for repressing fraud against the elderly are strengthened, with the introduction of a specific hypothesis of aggravated fraud with penalties of two to six years and a fine of €700 to €3,000.
- Stop light cannabis . The decree-law prohibits "the processing, distribution, trade, transport, dispatch, shipping and delivery of inflorescences of cultivated hemp even in semi-processed, dried or shredded form, as well as products containing or consisting of such inflorescences, including extracts, resins and oils derived from them". In fact, all hemp inflorescences have become illegal, regardless of their THC content.
- Prison and protection of minors. In terms of the execution of the sentence, the obligation to postpone the same for pregnant women and women with children is cancelled and the optional postponement is precluded "if this results in a situation of danger, of exceptional relevance, of commission of further crimes". Differentiation in the methods of execution of the sentence is foreseen between the mother of children up to 1 year of age and mothers of children from 1 to 3 years of age.
The opposition in the Chamber with signs 'Decree of Fear'. The majority in chorus: 'Honesty, honesty'
'Decree of fear' and 'Neither free nor safe' are some of the signs that opposition MPs held up in the Chamber before the final vote on the security decree. From the opposition benches during the vote, cries of 'Shame' began while the majority chanted 'Honesty, Honesty'.
The signs were lowered by the clerks while the vote of the measure was underlined by an applause from the majority. Pd, M5s and Avs also had sheets with the writings 'The protest does not stop'; 'Democracy does not bend' and 'Neither free, nor safe'.
Rai News 24
