All the magistrate members of the
Italian judiciary's self-governing body, the Supreme Council of
Magistrates (CSM), and three 'lay' councillors elected by
Parliament on Tuesday requested to open a special procedure to
protect the independence and autonomy of the joint chambers of
Italy's supreme Cassation Court.
The move came after a ruling last week by the supreme court
saying the government is liable to pay compensation to migrants
who were prevented from disembarking from coastguard ship
Diciotti in 2018 was harshly criticized by members of the
executive.
"After the publication of a ruling by the joint chambers of the
Cassation Court", which backed an appeal filed by a migrant on
the Diciotti vessel, "comments were made by several politicians
aimed at delegitimizing the court and harming the prestige and
function of the Cassation", the CSM members wrote in the
request.
"For this reason, all magistrate members of the CSM and the lay
councillors (Roberto) Romboli, (Michele) Papa and (Ernesto)
Carbone ask the president's office to open a practice to protect
the joint chambers of the Cassation", which issued the ruling.
The motion said that the expressions used by members of the
government commenting on the sentence - including "ideological
sentence", "shameful sentence, unwarranted invasion" into the
political realm and "frustrating", mentioned by the CSM members
in the motion - "allege in a false and unacceptable manner" that
members of the judiciary sought to "impose a specific political
orientation on the Italian government".
The civil joint chambers of the Cassation last Friday ruled in
favour of an appeal filed by a migrant who was part of a group
that was not allowed to disembark from the Italian coast guard's
Diciotti vessel that had rescued them at sea on August 16-26
2018 as part of then-interior minister Matteo Salvini's
closed-ports policy.
The appeal demanded that the Italian government compensate the
refugees on board on the grounds that they had been deprived of
their personal freedom.
The Cassation sent the case back to Rome's appeals court, ruling
that the judges of merit needed to determine the entity of
compensation to be potentially paid to the migrant.
In particular, the supreme court justices said the decision in
2018 not to let disembark the migrants on the Diciotti was not a
political act but an administrative choice and thus under the
jurisdiction of a regular judge.
Ruling that the specific case concerned a rescue operation at
sea and not a migration policy, the Cassation said that the
Diciotti ship could not be considered as a safe place for the
people on board and thus the government, specifically the
interior ministry, was responsible for an unjustified delay when
it failed to authorize the disembarkation of the vessel's
passengers for 10 days.
The top court concluded that, since the plaintiff had indicated
the damage endured as a consequence of the delayed
disembarkation, a regular tribunal needed to rule specifically
on compensation.
After the ruling, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo
Salvini, whose closed ports policy as then interior minister was
the cause of the failure to let the group of migrants off the
ship, called the Cassation's verdict "another invasion of the
field" after recent sentences which the government has
characterised as stepping over the judiciary's realm and into
the world of politics.
Premier Giorgia Meloni said the sentence was "questionable" and
the government would need to use "the money of honest Italian
tax payers" to pay "people who tried to enter Italy illegally,
violating the law of the Italian State".
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said he was perplexed by the
consequences of the Cassation Court ruling, saying that
magistrates do not "see beyond and there are devastating risks".
The comments prompted the first president of the Cassation
Court, Margherita Cassano, to say that sentences can be
criticized but insults are unacceptable and question the
separation of powers.
"The decisions of the Court of Cassation, along with those of
other judges, can be subjected to criticism.
"However, insults questioning the separation of powers on which
the rule of law is based are unacceptable", said Cassano, the
first woman to lead the supreme court.
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