Mission & Justice

John Hooper; 2/7/08
Italy’s highest appeal court has ruled that it is acceptable to discriminate against gypsies on the grounds that they are thieves. The judgment comes amid a nationwide clampdown on gypsies, also known as Roma, by the Government of Silvio Berlusconi. Last week the Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, announced plans to fingerprint all of Italy’s Roma, including children. The ruling, which appears to provide judicial backing for the Government’s policies, was handed down in March but reported only on Monday. The judges overthrew the conviction of six defendants who signed a leaflet demanding the expulsion of Verona’s Gypsies in 2000.

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Elisabetta Povoledo; 30/5/08

A top Italian terrorism investigator has told a court how easily an alleged CIA operation to kidnap a radical imam was unravelled: all that was necessary was to trace the mobile phones in use near the spot where the cleric disappeared on his way to a mosque in February 2003. “The evidence led us to believe that the operative group consisted of Americans,” Bruno Megale, the head of Milan’s anti-terrorism police force, told the court. “Some of the phones had called numbers in the United States; some had called the state of Virginia (where the CIA has its headquarters).” Testifying in the trial of 26 Americans, all but one identified as CIA operatives, Mr Megale described tracking massive amounts of mobile phone traffic to piece together Europe’s only prosecution of the Bush Administration’s much-disputed practice known as extraordinary rendition.

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14/5/08
A judge in Milan has ruled that Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, can be called to testify in a trial of CIA and Italian spies who are accused of kidnapping a ‘terrorism’ suspect in Milan and flying him to Egypt. Berlusconi is not accused of any crime and would appear as a witness to speak on the issue of state secrets in the case. The 71-year-old billionaire could become the first head of government in the world to testify in criminal proceedings over secret US transfers of “terrorism” suspects, known as renditions. Judge Oscar Magi also ruled that Romano Prodi, Berlusconi’s predecessor, could be called to give evidence.

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