The armed band is no longer a crime
Marco Travaglio from Il Fatto Quotidiano
After many laws ad personam for Mr.B, here's one for those loyal to Umberto B. The rule is well hidden in an omnibus order which takes effect in a few days, October 9: DL 03/15/2010 n. 66 published in the Official Gazette on 8 May under the title "Code of the military." The decree covers 1085 standards and, among these, the number 297, which abolishes the "No Dl 02/14/1948 43 ": that punishes with imprisonment from 1 to 10 years anyone who promotes, establishes, organizes or directs military associations, which pursue, even indirectly, for political purposes "and organize themselves to carry out" acts of violence or threat. " The trick is there and you see: a measure repealing a myriad of useless old rules is used to disguise the decriminalization of a serious crime and, sadly, very current. I wonder if the President of state, who regularly co-signed the decree, has noticed. The idea is due besides the Minister of Defense Ignazio La Russa, also the holder of the simplification of rules, the Northern League's Roberto Calderoli. What occurred to these gentlemen, among other things, the height of the new alarms about a possible return of terrorism, to decriminalize the military and paramilitary gangs of politically motivated? Perhaps the existence of an ongoing process in Verona for 14 years against the Northern League politicians and activists from around the Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy and Veneto, accused of organizing a paramilitary group in 1996 called "National Guard Po ", complete with a split: the famous green shirts, the guardians of secession. A process that until a few months ago also saw defendants Bossi, Maroni, Borghezio, Spurs and five other senior executives who were MPs at the time, including of course Calderoli. Originally, the charges made by the prosecutor Guido Papalia on the basis of investigations by the Digos and copious wiretaps, in which many players were talking about guns and various weapons, were three: attack on the Constitution, attack the unity and integrity State, setting up a paramilitary outlaws. But the first two, with another "law to bond," were de facto decriminalized (still only on actual use of violence) in 2005 by the second Berlusconi government. Remained just the third, that one now removed by the the L a Russa-Calderoli proposal. The Northern League leaders indicted were already saved from the usual process by a vote of Parliament, which declared that to establish a paramilitary band didn't fell among the crimes of opinion of those elected by the people. Papalia appealed to the Constitutional Court with two conflicts of powers between branches of government against the Chamber, but failed to get right. Remained charged 36 people, including Giampaolo Gobbo, secretary of the Liga Veneta and the deputy mayor of Treviso and Matthew Bragantini. But yesterday, the first day of the trial to the Court of Verona, she got the lawyer Patrick Edwards reporting to the judges who also survived the offense is going to evaporate: just wait until October 9th and all the defendants should be acquitted by law. Astonishment: nobody had noticed. The Court has been forced to acknowledge that, and postpone the hearing to November 19, pending the entry into force of the decree. Then the process will rest in peace forever. The green shirts and their sponsors can rest easy. The Party of Love, always ready to denounce the "climate of hatred that can degenerate into violence," decriminalized the armed band.