A surreal ratification of the ban on torture
01 March 2004
The process of ratification into Italian law of the ban on torture which Italy has signed up to in repeated international agreements experienced a remarkable turn, as the Lega Nord (LN, Northern League), with the support of the governing centre-right coalition, managed to force through an amendment in parliament that allows "threats and torture", if they are not "reiterated". The original text of the new article 613 bis of the Italian penal code "concerning the crime of torture", read: "The public official or person responsible for a public service who, through serious threats or violence, inflicts physical or mental suffering on people who are subjected to their authority in order to obtain information or a confession...or as punishment for actions that a person has committed or is suspected of having committed,..." or for reasons of racial, political, religious or sexual discrimination, "is punished with detention for between one and ten years". The LN's amendment saw the word "reiterated" introduced after "serious threats and torture" in this article, undermining the measure, and making it possible for torture to be allowed in isolated cases.
The head of the Parliament's Justice Commission, Gaetano Pecorella from prime minister Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI), admitted that the approval of the amendment "runs contrary to the Commission's opposition" to it. Opposition MPs left the chamber in protest against the provision; Maura Palma, the Italian representative in the Commission on the Prevention of Torture (CPT), called on parliament to "return to the original text”, which uses the definition of torture that is contained in the UN Convention that has already been ratified by Italy. Even members of the governing coalition criticised the amendment. Subsequently, Pecorella tried to dismiss the amendment's significance, claiming that it is not true that it would legitimise individual cases of torture, and that it would be possible to improve the measure if it was explicitly stated that the description of "reiterated" to limit the definition of the offence should only apply to threats.
Stefano Anastasia, the head of Associazione Antigone, argued that "civilised countries like ours should offer more guarantees, and certainly not less, than the UN definition". This controversial amendment was defended by the LN, which referred to it as a means to protect police officers. In this context it worth remembering that 73 officers and officials from the police and carabinieri (Italy's paramilitary police force), including four medical workers, are facing charges in relation to the mistreatment of detainees during the G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001.
Introduzione articolo 613-bis del codice penale concernente il delitto di tortura (Introduction of article 613-bis of the penal code, concerning the crime of torture, 22.4.04; available from www.cittadinolex.it; Il manifesto 23-30.4.04