Italy: Tough new anti-terrorist laws adopted
01 August 2005
(this analysis as a
pdf file)
"an intervention to make existing norms sharper and more incisive in the fight against terrorism" Giuseppe Pisanu, the Italian Interior Minister)
"allows law enforcement authorities to interrogate suspects without the suspect having a lawyer present, thus eliminating an important safeguard against torture as well as a protection of the right to a fair trial" (Amnesty International)
"it will also be possible for an executive authority (a prefect) - not a judge - to expel from Italy a person who is residing in Italy legally, determining that expulsion on prima facie evidence that the person poses a security threat to Italy" (Amnesty International)
"it gives the secret services the possibility to intercept [communications]; it makes the storage of telephone and IT traffic data obligatory for an unreasonable time" (Mauro Paissan, Italian Data Protection Ombudsman's Authority)
"Muslims must go around in jacket and trousers so as to avoid there being any covered body parts, otherwise there could be a terrorist under every robe" Giancarlo Gentilini, Lega Nord mayor of Treviso)
On 1 August 2005, a new anti-terrorist law came into force in Italy only five days after the government had presented the decree that the Council of Ministers (the Italian cabinet) had approved on 22 July 2005. It includes a string of anti-terrorist measures in response to the terrorist attacks in the London public transport services on 7 July. The decree followed a heated public debate which often strayed into racism, as a result of the threat issued by Al Qaida against Italy in relation to its presence in Iraq and of the increasingly intolerant discourse of MPs and ministers from the Lega Nord. Giuseppe Pisanu, the Italian Interior Minister, explained that measures in the decree's nineteen articles were not "exceptional" but rather, an:
"intervention to make existing norms sharper and more incisive in the fight against terrorism"
Although the claim was aimed at reducing concern over the measures that were to be adopted, a closer reading of the law suggests that it features the adoption of "exceptional" measures on a permanent basis. The inclusion of measures to make data retention compulsory until 31 December 2007, the limiting of judicial oversight and increased political involvement in expulsions and investigative activities, and powers given to the army to search and detain terrorist suspects are examples of this. The law (whose title admits that it is aimed at tackling "international terrorism and crime") also sanctions a departure from ordinary procedure for practices such as detention, searches, surveillance or the adoption of restrictive measures for cases involving terrorist offences, expands the definition of terrorist conduct in line with the definition adopted at an EU level, and increases punishment for individuals contravening restrictive measures imposed upon them.
Amnesty International spoke out against some of the provisions that were proposed, arguing that the decree:
"allows law enforcement authorities to interrogate suspects without the suspect having a lawyer present, thus eliminating an important safeguard against torture as well as a protection of the right to a fair trial"
and that
"it will also be possible for an executive authority (a prefect) - not a judge - to expel from Italy a person who is residing in Italy legally, determining that expulsion on prima facie evidence that the person poses a security threat to Italy"
Although this measure was altered to allow the interior minister to order expulsions and to make the prefetto's power to do so dependent on authorisation by the interior minister, the oversight over this measure has become political rather than judicial. Mauro Paissan from the Italian data protection ombudsman's autho