Lucrezia Ciotti Yesterday, Wednesday 5 February, the Ministers of Justice and the Interior, Carlo Nordio and Matteo Piantedosi, gave information to the Chamber and the Senate on the Almasri case. The reports, very technical and detailed, defended the government's actions, accompanied by harsh criticism of the International Criminal Court for its hasty management of the affair and of some Italian magistrates accused of superficial interventions.
Almasri Case Information, Clashes in the Courtroom
In his intervention, the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio has firmly rejected the criticisms and reconstructions deemed imprecise that emerged in the previous days. He reiterated that his task is not limited to a bureaucratic role, but implies a political responsibility in assessing and mediating international requests.
Nordio also contested the legitimacy of the mandate of the Criminal Court International. Invalid because it was not translated into Italian and accompanied by attachments in Arabic, a circumstance that should have raised doubts about its validity and immediate application
Debates in both the House and Senate have been frequently interrupted by protests, with shouting matches between the majority and the opposition and, in some cases, even between the Executive benches and the Chamber.
“He spoke as a defender of a torturer”, accuses the PD secretary Elly Schlein.
The harshest attacks were directed at the Prime Minister, who was absent from the chamber:
“You thought you had found the Iron Lady, but you found the Butter Man, strong with the weak and weak with the strong”, says the president of Italia Viva, Matthew Renzi.
“The great absence of President Meloni, who runs away from Parliament and citizens, an act of institutional cowardice”, added the leader of the M5s Joseph Conte.
The Democratic deputies, instead, displayed signs with the words “Meloni where are you?” e “Meloni the patriot on the run”. While Schlein commented as follows: “Meloni sent her ministers to the Chamber with the attitude of a rabbit president, not of a council president”,
The information from ministers Nordio and Piantedosi was defined as “unsatisfactory and inadequate” by the opposition. One said that Almasri could not be arrested, while the other argued that, being dangerous, he should be removed from the national territory. Both invoked national security, also involving the Prime Minister.
The opposition then reiterated their request for an urgent briefing from President Meloni in the Chamber.
The three suspects in the Almasri case
In relation to this each other, Nordio, Piantedosi and Meloni are under investigation, with an inquiry started by the Rome prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi and subsequently transmitted to the tribunal of ministers.
"The quality of the suspect is underlined in bold: I saw it with a certain tenderness this emphasis that I would be a person under investigation, because I know very well that if you are in the 335 register you are a person under investigation, you are not registered with the bowling association", Nordio stressed.