The short trial in Italy, must be said, would be a wonderful idea. The infinite duration of trials is one of the great evils of Italy and should be remedied. The distressing aspect of all this however is the fact that the government initiative was born only because the president of the Council, Berlusconi, has some ongoing proceedings that would like to see end in a statute of limitation. To shorten the time of justice is not really enough just one law, it would take substantial reforms.
First would be necessary to increase the staff of the judiciary: judges, prosecutors and clerks. Then it would be necessary to restrict the ability of defense lawyers to use various techniques for slowing down trials, precisely targeted to reach the statute of limitation. A strategy which, we should remember, can do only defendants quite wealthy, because it implies a significant increase in legal costs.
In fact, the trials of poor people accused of thefts, petty drug dealing or illegal immigration are usually very fast. For the avoidance of doubt, the majority ruled that illegal immigration, as the crimes of the mafia and terrorism, may not be subject to short trial. We must reflect on this point with concrete examples. An immigrant who arrived in Italy regularly but worked illegaly can lost his work permit, being stopped and hit by a decree of expulsion, do not leave voluntarily, be checked again and so arrested for the new crime of illegal immigration, will be prosecuted and end up in jail, no matter how long it takes to convict him. If, as likely, it has no fixed domicile in Italy, will remain in jail for as long as the trial last, no matter how long. It's an absurdity so great that now even the majority think to correc that.
Instead, a rich entrepreneur who stole millions of euros from his shareholders or has polluted for years a territory killing hundreds or thousands of people, all the corrupt politicians and their corrupters, they will benefit from the short trial. The trial cannot last more than two years, the appeal two more and the cassation court appeal two others. If, as likely, the accused has a home in Italy and is not subject to custodial measures, he will not spend a day in jail pending the ruling. If, as is likely in these cases, the investigations are long and difficult and his lawyers are doing everything to slow down the trial, this person will escape without a single day in prison and will never be convicted.
That's precisely what Berlusconi did. His lawyers managed to slow down his trials for corruption and now, if this new law is approved, they wil be subjects of the statute of limitation and he'll escape justice as he has done in the past.
Compare a second the first example to this: an immigrant who has committed only a minor offense or at most a petty crime may remain in jail a long time. Instead, people who have damaged or even killed hundreds, thousands of people will get away with ease. Well obviously they'll spend a lot on lawyers, but all the money they have they stolen from someone else, so it isn't a real loss. The Law on the short trial has begun today its course advancing through the Senate Judiciary Committee, then to go to the House for any changes and return to the Senate for final approval, which could take place, according to the chairman of the Committee Berselli, before Christmas. So all the rich and powerful criminals in Italy, those that are the cause of many evils in this country, will celebrate a wonderful Christmas. Together with them, also our Prime Minister.
Francesco Defferrari
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