IHF Report 2001
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168 ITALY1 Authorities levelled the Roma camp in Casilino on 29 August. © Stefano Montesi IHF FOCUS: Freedom of expression and the media; the judicial system and fair trail; conditions in prisons; intolerance, xenophobia and racial discrimination; protection of ethnic minorities; protection of asylum seekers and immigrants; women’s rights; rights of the child; homosexuals’ rights. Legislation addressing dangerous pris- director of the publication was a member oners was made more restrictive, and the of the official Order of Journalists. In recent release of members of organized crime years, a referendum to abolish this com- raised public debate. Prison revolts focused pulsory order was not successful since less attention on overcrowding and the abuse than 50 percent of the electorate voted. of prisoners. Xenophobic attitudes were common and immigrants became the tar- Judicial System and Fair Trial gets of xenophobic acts. At the same time, On 10 February, Minister of Interior, some politicians stressed that Italy’s econo- Enzo Bianco presented a set of amend- my needs more immigrants. The Roma mi- ments to the legislation aimed at prevent- nority faced segregation and excessive ing a person who committed an exception- abuse by the police and other authorities. ally serious crime from leaving prison while his case is pending, and to limit the bene- Freedom of Expression and the Media fits available for such prisoners. Bianco’s Despite Article 21 of the Italian Consti- proposal provoked a reaction from the tution, according to which the press cannot Minister of Justice, Mr. Diliberto, who - on be subjected to authorisation or censor- 12 February - said that “Bianco had gone ship, Italy retained “post-fascist” legislation beyond his competence.” The Senate ap- on the press: no one was allowed to pub- proved the amendments on 6 March lish a magazine or newspaper unless the 2001. ITALY 169 On 18 November, Minister of Justice pass between two lines of wardens who Fassino opened an inquiry into “easy re- beat them brutally. On 3 May, the accused leases” from prison. The inquiry concerned were all arrested. On 4 May, an additional in particular the case of Giuseppe Castaldo, 100 warders were questioned for having a member of Camorra (a criminal organiza- given contradictory testimony. The inquiry tion similar to the Mafia and which is active was meant to assess whether anyone at in Naples and its surroundings). Neapolitan the Ministry of Justice knew what had been judges had released him against the advice happening in the prison. of the Office of the Prosecutor. The Minister On 25 June, prisoners in all the prisons announced that something would be done of the country staged a protest demanding immediately to avoid that other detainees amnesty. The Parliament was divided in its were released in the same way. On 19 No- opinion, but on 27 June the majority was in vember, it was announced that all Neapo- favour of pardoning prisoners in order to litan Camorra bosses could be released fol- solve the problem of overcrowding without lowing the termination of their preventive cancelling sentences. Many deputies, how- detention. A total of 125 people were in- ever, rejected the pardons, citing the pri- volved, including Francesco Schiavone and macy of public safety. his “lieutenants”. Since the trial began in N On 1 July, there was a revolt in the July 1998 in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, 80 prison of Regina Coeli in Rome. Three pris- of the accused have already been released. oners, followed by 20 others, attacked the On 21 November, the Government ap- wardens with bars, demanding to be set proved a decree providing for different free. Twenty-five wardens and three prison- means of calculating the period of preven- ers were injured. tive detention. On 7 July, the Government proposed legislative measures to deal with the emer- Conditions in Prisons gency situation in prisons and the malfunc- Overcrowding was the most serious tioning of the judicial system: 4,000 pris- problem in Italian prisons in 2000, triggering oners should be released, aliens who had prisoners’ protests and revolts. According to committed crimes should be expelled im- official figures, there were 53,507 prisoners mediately, new jails should be built, and in July 2000, although the overall prison ca- new judges and prison personnel should pacity was only 42,749 in all the prisons be engaged. An expense of 3,000 billion li- combined. Nearly 24,000 prisoners were ras (U.S.$ 1.5 billion) in three years was ex- awaiting judgment, roughly 14,000 prison- pected. ers were non-EU citizens and some 6,000 However, on 22 September, the were serving a term shorter than two years. Government discovered that 1,060 billion N On 3 April, prisoners of the Sassari jail liras allocated to build new prisons were in Sardinia protested because of over- not available. Some persons proposed that crowding and abuse in the prison: thirty of the sum should be drawn from the prison- them were “punished” in the presence of ers’ health fund. the director. On 2 May, a court opened an According to a report issued by the inquiry into alleged abuse by wardens. NGO “Antigone” in May, between 1991 Eighty-two wardens, the Regional Superin- and 1997, 237 wardens were charged with tendent Giuseppe della Vecchia, Director causing injuries, threatening or insulting Maria Cristina Di Marzio and the comman- prisoners; 129 were charged with violating der of the wardens faced charges following the law on narcotics; 66 were charged with a report – affirmed by prisoners and their abuse of authority; 24 were charged with families - that prisoners had been forced to culpable or wilful murder; and 13 were 170 ITALY charged with sexual abuse. In 2000, (also in charge of sports), Giovanna “Antigone” also reported serious abuse in Melandri decided that football matches the prisons of Secondigliano, Nuoro, could be interrupted if spectators used Parma, Orvieto, and Pianosa. racist or violent slogans. Intolerance, Xenophobia and Racial Protection of Ethnic Minorities Discrimination Roma Minority 2 Numerous xenophobic acts were Anti-Romani hate speech and abuse recorded in 2000. against Roma were widespread in Italy in N Roberto Tomelleri set fire to Brahid 2000. The political party Lega Nord fre- Wajiol, a Moroccan boy who was courting quently used racist and anti-Romani lan- his daughter, on 6 March in Verona. The guage in public statements. In the regional youth suffered third degree burns. The girl’s elections held on 16 April, the centre-right father, who was held for questioning, de- and extreme right, including the Lega Nord, clared: “I do not hate aliens.” swept the country with a majority. Their campaign featured explicitly anti-Romani N On the evening of 20 March, support- messages. ers of a Rome football team threw Molotov N In the town of Voghera, centre-right cocktails in the underground passage near candidate Aurelio Torriani distributed fliers the railway station “San Lorenzo“ in Rome. intended to discredit centre-left candidate Foreign street people often sleep there at Antonella Dagradi with the slogan: “The night; fortunately, there were no casualties. Gypsies will certainly vote for Antonella N On 25 August, two 15-year-old boys Dagradi. Do you want to do the same?“ killed a prostitute from Ghana in Lonate Recent surveys indicate that many Ceppino, near Varese, to steal her bag. “We Italians dislike and fear Roma, although wanted to commit a robbery to see what it they have little or no experience with them. feels like,” they explained. For many Italians, Roma are the archetype of unwanted “criminal“ immigrants. This N On 13 October, the Lega Nord – an ex- sentiment reached fever pitch when ap- treme rightist political party - demonstrated proximately 10,000 Roma refugees arrived against plans to build a mosque in Lodi, in Italy during the summer of 1999, after near Milan. The Forza Italia party also joined being expelled from Kosovo by ethnic the demonstration and the number of the Albanians following the end of the NATO participants reached one thousand, many bombing and Yugoslav military action in the of whom displayed racist slogans. region. When dealing with cases of foreign There were no accurate figures on the adoptions, the Juvenile Court of Ancona number of Roma in Italy: local NGOs esti- ruled in some 60 cases that “international mated in late 2000 that there were between adoption is possible, but only of white- 60,000-90,000 Italian Romani citizens and skinned children”. According to judge 45,000-70,000 Roma born outside Italy or Luisianna del Conte, dark-skinned children born in Italy to immigrant parents, mainly could not integrate in the conservative- from Eastern Europe, especially the former minded environment of provincial Italy. On Yugoslavia. Many of the latter group had no 21 October, Minister for Social Affairs Livia legal status in Italy. Roma who managed to Turco deemed such rulings to be “misguid- legalise their status often possessed tempo- ed” and prejudicial. rary residence permits valid for various - but On 1 February, Minister of Interior Enzo exclusively short - periods of time, mostly Bianco and Minister for Arts and Culture between one and six months. ITALY 171 Roma lived segregated from non- identification papers; sexually abusive Romani Italians. In some areas, Roma were searches of women; failure to provide excluded and ignored, living in filthy and proper interpretation to immigrant Roma squalid conditions without basic infrastruc- accused of criminal acts; failure to provide tures. Their settlements were often called information concerning detained Roma; “illegal“ or “unauthorised“. They could be threats and violations of the right of as- evicted at any moment, and frequently sembly; and inadequate punishment for of- were.