MEMORANDUM BEFORE COURT: THE COURT ADJOURNS.
NEXT HEARING: JANUARY 22nd, 2014. PROTESTS IN THE COURTROOM
July 17th, 2013: Free Trieste’s activists and supporters during a sit-in at the Court of Trieste.
Trieste, July 17th, 2013: we expected the Court’s assessments about the 1954 Memorandum regarding the Free Territory of Trieste.
Namely, we expected a judgment about jurisdiction. We got one more adjournment. Instead we got a new hearing, on January 22nd, 2014.
This should have been the first hearing discussions the merit of jurisdiction. The discussion should have revolved on the 1954 Memorandum of Understanding regarding the Free Territory of Trieste, the agreement under which the present-day Free Territory of Trieste is sub-entrusted to the Italian Government’s temporary civil administration.
This is a special trusteeship mandate, enforced and implemented in the Italian legal order. Under the 1954 MoU, the administering Government is bound to respect the provisions of the 1947 Italian Peace Treaty regarding Trieste, the rights of its people, and the international Free Port‘s management. This means, Italian administering authorities cannot abuse the mandate and simulate Italian sovereignty instead.
This is what the 1954 MoU is all about. (Source: UNTS, Vol. 235: LINK).
2. As soon as this Memorandum of Understanding has been initialled and the boundary adjustments provided by it have been carried out, the Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States and Yugoslavia will terminate military government in Zones A and B of the Territory. […] The Italian and Yugoslav Governments will forthwith extend their civil administration over the area for which they will have responsibility.
*since 1992, “Zone A” is the present-day Free Territory of Trieste.
The Court of Trieste has translated the document in Italian, their official translators confirm is: civil administration. Administration does not mean sovereignty. The 1954 MoU regarding the Free Territory of Trieste is a serious, decisive document, and also the most serious evidence against the local simulators of Italian sovereignty.
Instead of a peaceful hearing, we had rather lively one. The Court decided to adjourn the case, but did not inform the parties or the many supporters and activists who wanted to attend the historical discussion. This is why Free Trieste could not, say, cancel or postpone the demonstration summoned in view of the examination of the 1954 MoU.
The presiding judge, Massimo Tommasini, postponed the hearing. For 45 minutes, the people stood outside in a sunny July day, hoping to see the Court discussing the decisive source of their rights.
But after 45 minutes judge Tommasini (who substitutes judge Leanza, himself a substitute of judge Paolo Vascotto, who lost this case after accepting to discuss jurisdiction in the merit), informed the crowded courtroom that the hearing is taking place in January. A 6 month adjournment. A total of 2 hours wait disrupted in 2 minutes.
Some people expressed their anger shouting “shame” or “Free Trieste” against the judiciary. The general feeling is, they are escaping their duties and intimidating the people of Trieste who stand for it.
Translated from blog “Environment and Legality” by Roberto Giurastante