First hearing of the trial in which the writer Roberto Saviano is accused of defamation against the premier Giorgia Meloni . A story that dates back to December 2020 when the author of Gomorrah, during a television broadcast in which he addressed the issue of migrants, defined the leader of the Brothers of Italy as a "bastard".
«You must have remembered all the rubbish said about NGOs: "sea taxis", "cruises"... but you just come to say bastards. To Meloni, to Salvini, bastards, how could you? How was it possible to describe all this pain like this? It is legitimate to have a political opinion but not on the emergency», said Saviano speaking of the death of a child from Guinea during a crossing in the Mediterranean .
Shortly before the hearing, which was adjourned to next December 12, Meloni's lawyer, the lawyer Luca Libra, however, announced that with his client they will evaluate a possible withdrawal of the lawsuit that started the judicial process .
Matteo Salvini instead just today presented, through his lawyer, an application to form a civil party .
Saviano, who in court was "accompanied", among others, by the actress Kasia Smutniak and the writers Sandro Veronesi, Michela Murgia, Nicola Lagioia, read some statements: "I consider it singular that a writer is tried for the words he spends, no matter how hard they are, while defenseless individuals continue to suffer atrocious violence and constant lies," says the writer. Then, referring to the tragedy of the migrants, he added: "Faced with the dead, with drowning, with indifference, with speculation, with that mother who lost her child, I could not keep silent. And I feel I have spent words even too much cautious, that he cried outrage even sparingly".
In the next hearing it is not excluded that the issue of the witness list will also be addressed. In the one presented by the defense appears, among others, also the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi.
(Unioneonline/D)
