«In Italy it has very often been easy to enter prison before the trial as a presumed innocent person and perhaps to leave after the final sentence as a confirmed guilty person».
The Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio returns to talk about the short circuits of the judicial system, this time in light of two recent events which ended in the opposite direction: on the one hand the case of Beniamino Zuncheddu , the former Sardinian shepherd accused of a massacre which is managed to prove his innocence only after almost 33 years of detention; on the other that of Matteo Di Pietro , the YouTuber who managed to avoid prison after a plea bargain to a sentence of 4 years and 4 months (when the maximum for the crime of road homicide is 18 years) for the death in Casal Palocco of a 5-year-old boy, hit last June with an SUV.
"There was heated controversy over that person who received a conviction for manslaughter by road and was subjected to house arrest," explained the Minister of Justice at the Civitavecchia prison. «We must always think about the social alarm that is caused by these crimes and the desperation of victims and relatives, who – he added – see a sort of impunity on the part of those who commit the crimes. We are very certain about this, as an emphasis on the presumption of innocence before the trial but also on the certain application of the sentence after conviction."
Regarding the paradox according to which presumed innocent people end up behind bars compared to other people who instead escape despite convictions, the minister underlined: «This is a situation which we are trying to remedy, but obviously it must be combined with the decisions sovereigns of the judiciary".
Yesterday the undersecretary for Justice Andrea Ostellari , responding to a question in the Justice Committee, also spoke on the Zuncheddu affair, explaining that the ex-pastor's affair «offers once again the opportunity to reflect on the need for regulatory interventions aimed at limiting cases of miscarriage of justice and ensure a more thoughtful decision on the limitation of personal freedom. To this end - he highlighted - the government has presented a bill which contains specific changes in terms of precautionary measures clearly inspired by guarantees".
(Unioneonline)