Judicial year, protests by lawyers. Pg: ‘Unconstitutional reform’ – Politics

The reform of the limitation regime, which suspends it after the first instance, “presents risks of unconstitutionality” and “violates Article 111 of the Constitution, with which it conflicts, as regards the effects, affecting the constitutional guarantee of the reasonable duration of the trial “. The Attorney General, Roberto Alfonso, stresses this in the report for the judicial year in Milan, who at the same time complains about “appalling staff gaps and the lack of resources that contribute to long trial times”. ‘In Rome 1 trial out of 2 is prescribed’, says the president of the Court of Appeal of Rome, Luciano Panzani, in his report

MILAN
In the report for the judicial year in Milan, the Attorney General, Roberto Alfonso, complains about “appalling staff gaps and the lack of resources that contribute to long process times” and points out that the reform of the prescription regime, which suspends her after the first grade, “presents risks of unconstitutionality“and” violates art. 111 of the Constitution, with which it conflicts, as regards the effects, affecting the constitutional guarantee of the reasonable duration of the process “.
About forty lawyers from the Milan Criminal Chamber paraded showing signs with the articles of the Constitution as a form of protest against the prescription reform. “We have indicated three articles of the Constitution: 24 that is for the right of defense, 27 that is the presumption of innocence is 111 that is the right process. We will welcome Davigo with these signs,” said lawyer Giovanni Briola of the Board of the Criminal Chamber “. After having displayed the signs with three articles of the Constitution, the lawyers and left the courtroom when CSM councilor Piercamillo Davigo took the floor at the inauguration of the judicial year in Milan. The silent contestation comes after the interview issued by the magistrate in the days to a newspaper on the prescription reform that has sparked several controversies among the lawyers. Davigo himself was applauded in the courtroom. When the president of the Court of Appeal of Milan Marina Tavassi in thanking the main guests present at the inauguration of the judicial year, he nominated Davigo saying that “we are pleased to welcome and that for many years we have had a leading role in the Milan court, in A row of applause has risen in the courtroom. Davigo, a member of the CSM and president of the Second Criminal Section of the Cassation, has recently been at the center of a hard confrontation with the criminalists for the sentences spoken in an interview with the relative lawyers. to prescription.
Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede, speaking at the inauguration of Milan, he said he respected “the differences of the penalists” because they were “physiological”. “I – he added – am ready to confront all the actors”, “I agree that we must intervene on the timing of the trial”. The minister also explained that he had “never said that prescription is a way of reducing these times for me”.

ROME
In 2019 in the Lazio district “the prescribed processes were 19,500 out of a total of 125,000, equal to 15%. Of these 48% on appeal (7,743) and 10% to the investigating judge (7,300), 12% to the monochrome trial ( 4,300), 118 to the collegiate (5%). The prescription affects most in the trials for which there is a sentence at first instance and therefore almost one in two in Rome in Appeal “. This was stated by the president of the Court of Appeal of Rome, Luciano Panzani, during his speech at the inauguration of the judicial year. “The high number of prescriptions – adds Panzani – was determined by the significant delay in the arrival of the file in the Court after the proposal of the appeal, to which was added the time necessary for the establishment of the procedural relationship, often conditioned from reporting defects. ” For Panzani “this however is the result of the bottleneck to which the appeal has been reduced. The Ministry has finally foreseen the increase of the organic plants of the Courts of Appeal: + 9 councilors in Rome and Naples. For Rome it means 2,000 sentences additional penalties per year: progress, not the solution to the problem, even if in a few years Rome has gone from 10,000 criminal sentences per year of 2014-2015 to 16,000 in 2019, with an increase, net of prescription sentences , of 3,000 criminal sentences per year “. For the President of the Court of Appeal, “the battle to resolve the prescription problem can be won by” strengthening “the Courts adequately and to remedy the backlog that has accumulated, for minor crimes, a targeted amnesty”. This was stated by the president of the Court of Appeal of Rome, Luciano Panzani, in the report on the inauguration of the judicial year. For the high magistrate “suspending the prescription is useless. It only means accumulating the processes without having the resources to do them. The Ministry’s commitment to hire staff (the offices have discovered administrative staff of 20-30%) cannot be sufficient and timely. The staff gaps of the magistrates require five years of competitions to be filled at the current rate “. For Panzani, “suspending the trials without doing them means irreparably damaging fundamental rights to a fair and timely trial, avoiding the punishment being imposed and taken for granted after too much time has passed since the event and when it has now lost much of its meaning”.
The acting attorney general of the Court of Appeal of Rome, Federico De Siervo, in his report states that it is “the presence of a significant number of criminal organizations confirmed qualifiable pursuant to art. 416 bis of the penal code, according to the interpretative scheme of small mafias, developed by the Court of Cassation in recent years. What in recent years had appeared as an absolutely innovative criminal phenomenon, but still in the initial phase has found important confirmation in the last period, both investigative and procedural. Next to the real novelty of the presence of autochthonous mafia organizations – he adds -, a composite criminal galaxy, as nourished as it is dangerous, made up of individuals or groups that constitute as many projections, in a broad sense, of traditional mafia organizations, of the ‘ ndrangheta, first of all, of various Camorra groups, but also of Cosa Nostra. “For De Siervo” traditional criminal organizations (especially ‘Ndrangheta and Camorra) have long since acquired, even at off-market prices, properties, companies and businesses in which employ huge economic resources from crimes. In this context, the mafia organizations did not have to commit themselves to contending hegemony “and” consequently, in Lazio and especially in Rome, in line with the trend, they did not operate according to the most usual methodologies, that is, through manifestly violent behaviors but they tried to maintain a peaceful situation so that they can easily achieve their main objective: the progressive penetration into the economic and entrepreneurial fabric of the territory, and above all of the capital, in order to recycle and profitably use capital of criminal origin “.

REGGIO CALABRIA
Illness during the opening ceremony of the judicial year in Reggio Calabria for the President of the Court of Appeal, Luciano Gerardis. The magistrate, who however appeared vigilant after the first aid, collapsed on the ground while he was reading the report. The doctor on duty in the carabinieri school where the ceremony was held was interrupted immediately. After a few minutes Gerardis wanted to return to the courtroom, but he accused a new illness and was taken to the hospital. Even in this circumstance, the magistrate remained vigilant. The magistrate again felt bad while attending the continuation of the ceremony. Also in this circumstance, the doctor on duty at the police station “Fava e Garofalo”, where the ceremony is taking place, which ordered his immediate hospitalization, intervened. The inauguration ceremony of the judicial year, which suffered a new interruption and then resumed with the intervention of the Attorney General Bernardo Petralia, ended well in advance of the scheduled program.

CATANIA
What “ended” was “” an ‘annus horribilis’ for the judiciary, having recent events and which have had great echo in public opinion, re-proposed the debate on the moral values ​​and constitutional principles that support the independence of the judiciary. “Thus the President of the Court of Appeal Giuseppe Meliadò in the inaugural report of the judicial year of Catania.” The risk of emotional reactions and hasty evaluations completely taken for granted – observes Meliadò – in a society that favors the speed of communication over at the time of reflection, however, it did not prevent a discussion on these issues from starting, which despite lights and shadows, tried to distinguish between the basic values ​​- and as such, essential – of self-government and ideal pluralism and organizational structure of the judiciary and renewal needs which, through the writing of new rules, can improve the capacity of the magi stratum of articulating itself as a widespread, but not hierarchical, power that is responsible, but subject only to the law, urging – underlines the president of the Court of Appeal of Catania – the inclination of each magistrate to be, at every moment of professional life, ‘ without fear and without hope ‘, as the Republican Constitution wanted “.