Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told
the Lower House Wednesday in response to a motion of
no-confidence filed by the centre-left opposition that he is
being attacked to avoid a reform of the judiciary aimed at
separating the career paths of judges and prosecutors and at
changing the way members of the judiciary's self-governing body
are elected.
The opposition's controversies are often "exasperated in
language and tone, saying for example that there is an aim to
favour the mafia or organized crime", the minister told the
House, referring to criticism from the centre-left of a
government bill recently voted into law cracking down on
wiretaps.
"All these things sound offensive and nasty.
"I suspect that these attacks, which come in the sloppiest and
most fake way, give the feeling that they are part of a planned
campaign to avoid the reform separating the career paths and the
draw system to elect the CSM", the Superior Council of
Magistrates, or the judiciary's self-governing body", the
justice minister also said.
"Regardless of the attacks - judicial, through the media or in
parliament - we will not hesitate: the reform moves forward", he
said.
"And if you will be at your worst, we will be at our best",
Nordio told opposition lawmakers, replying to the motion of
no-confidence.
Nordio also accused opposition members of reminding him of the
"inquisition" and of attempting to bring to court any political
conflict in relation to Italia Viva (IV) lawmaker Roberto
Giachetti's complaint regarding the responsibility of the
justice minister in a spate of suicides in Italy's chronically
overcrowded prisons.
Centre-left opposition parties have filed a no-confidence motion
against Nordio over his handling of the arrest, release and
return to Libya of an alleged war criminal wanted by the
International Criminal Court (ICC), Libyan judicial police chief
General Osama Almasri.
On Wednesday, Nordio denied delaying his response to Rome's
appeals court, which allowed Almasri to be released from
detention two days after his January 19 arrest in Turin and
return to Libya on a State flight.
"The time, 48 hours, which the minister took to try to
understand the aspects of the charges against Almasri, was not a
time dedicated to favouring his flight, exit or release", but a
duty the minister had to "understand whether that act had to
have consequences - confirmed by the fact that that it was so
wrong that the (International Criminal) Court later changed it",
he told the House about the arrest warrant.
Nordio has said Almasri, wanted for torture, murder and the
alleged rape of migrants as young as five at the notorious
Mitiga jail outside of Tripoli, was released because of errors
in the ICC warrant.
The opposition has said the general was released for reasons of
national interest due to his place in an Italian-funded scheme,
dating back to 2017, to allegedly push back migrants to the
allegedly brutal holding centres in the north African country.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
