Yesterday I rejected judge Monica Pacilio. I was before Court to oppose a request to pay a fee for raising the question of the lack of Italian jurisdiction over the Free Territory of Trieste.
The fees regard my very first exception on jurisdiction (December 14th, 2011), the one that initiated the public campaign for the recognition of the rights of the Free Territory’s people. Since decades, they are forced to endure an oppressive simulation of Italian sovereignty in breach of the 1954 MoU, which instead establishes a temporary civil administration, sub-entrusted to the Italian Government (not to the Italian State).
For “daring” to exercise my rights of free citizen in a free State, I received a EUR 2,500 fee. And, obviously, the Trieste Court of Appel sought to collect it immediately.
I refused to be punished for exercising a right. So I impugned the document, arguing also that there is no such Court as an Italian Court of Appeal in Trieste (the existing one is a Court of the Free Territory). I summoned in the civil proceeding also the Italian Government through its Ministry of Justice, obviously in its role of Trieste’s provisional administering Government.
And this gets us back to yesterday’s hearing. An odd hearing indeed: strictly surveilled in accordance with the new rules the local Italian authorities have set for the citizens of the Free Territory. Indeed, Italian justices don’t appreciate that the local claim their rights under the 1947 Treaty of Peace. Longs for legality must be shut. Even patrolling the hearings.
This premise was fundamental to understand the hostile clima in the Court of Trieste. This happens when the forgotten people seek a long-denied justice: according to Italian politicians, the people of the Free Territory “do not exist”.
Back to the Court. It doesn’t seem exactly welcoming. I get there at 8.50AM, first floor, left hall. A desert: is someone afraid of us? Two agents of the DIGOS (political police) stand in front of the judge’s office. My lawyer is not far away. We talk. He is used to political trials, yet, this whole thing is new to him. It isn’t long, and here come the Carabinieri. An officer and a non-commissioned officer. What do they think I am? Some boss of the Mafia?
Enter the opponents: the State’s layer, Marco Meloni, and Equitalia’s lawyer, Isabella Passeri. What a news! The Italian State’s legal service comes to Court to deny the Memorandum of Understanding of London!
Next in line, a journalist of “Il Piccolo” (this is mandatory)… It’s been a long derogatory campaign, so far, we have been addressed as “madmen”, “loons”, “subversive” and even “tax frauds”. And I sure am forgetting some other “nice” word.
This is the unholy matrimony of fake news and bad justice: at least corrupt Italy is coherent when it comes to disservices.
The journalist is like a ferret: it’s got a prey and won’t let it escape. The way too friendly lawyer of the State’s Legal Service, on his side, hands him the very response he is about to lodge in the proceeding…
It’s 9.05AM, let the trial begin. Two days before, as due under the law, I rejected the judge on grounds of hostility. Why? She has already expressed herself on the matter of jurisdiction in another proceeding, rejecting it.
However, it was a rejection based on merely political grounds, disputable by much more reliable documentation, therefore, it is a decision that constitutes a breach of the Italian Constitution, namely, art. 10 regarding generally recognized provisions of international law and art. 117, regarding international obligations. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides good insight about it.
Furthermore, the Italian National Magistrates Association (Associazione Nazionale Magistrati – ANM) has recently took a stand in the name of its members about the question of lawsuits against political organization “Free Trieste”. This has given raise to grounds of environmental incompatibility. Nobody knows who belongs to the ANM, but on its website the Association claims to represent “about 90%” of Italian magistrates.
It’s been one and a half month since: not one person has dissociated itself from the ANM. And nobody has sent a retractation about it to “Il Piccolo” which obviously amplified the news. Not one magistrate has distanced from the ANM’s hostile statement against the Free Trieste Movement, its members, and its supporters.
After being rejected, Ms. Pacilio should suspend the proceedings and forward the documentation to the President of the Court. He should then establish a new formation of the Court to evaluate the rejection.
Yet, she doesn’t. Ms. Pacilio reserves to make her own decision on the matter. How in the world? Well, easily, since twisting the law is an Italian judge’s best talent. Some high-level “discretional” justice we have here. Not so much legal certainty. This is the secret of the Italian magistracy!
But there is more. Enter the State’s lawyer. My lawyer asks to review his response. But it is not in the case file. Neither is the writ of appearance. A mystery!
Except not. This “distracted” representative of the authorities (but which one exactly? The Italian Republic, a third State, or the Italian Government, hence Trieste’s provisional administering Government? Nobody knows!) recalls that he left the documentation to the journalist!
The journalist is still luring around the judge’s office, so the State’s lawyer runs off, takes back the documentation, and under the condescending eyes of the judge comes back. That’s it. It is also illegal, but Italian justice will do.
If this were to happen (but it could never happen!) in an Anglo-Saxon Country, the lawyer would be kicked out of the case and be punished. It’s inadmissible that documentation about an ongoing case be handed over to passers-by, even worse to the press, for the purpose of being published. Only, this requires a civilized Country.
Finally we have the document, let’s read it. Regret ensues. The document is some barely four pages filled with nothing but insults against the counterpart. Which is me. My rock-solid appeal revolves on Trieste’s legal status. Its annexes are the Treaty of Peace in force, the original versions of the 1954 MoU, and also the Italian laws that enforce and implement them.
The Italian State’s legal service only has a one-liner: “In the merit, those claims are as extravagant as they are groundless”. Fine, how is this demonstrated, argue, proved? With one more one-liner: “Under the history of the law, we recall all that was written in less suspicious decades by the best international law scholars”. That’s it.
All while adding ironic remarks all and there for “Il Piccolo” to pick up. Marco Meloni, a dignified representative of the Italian State, dismisses the Free Territory as Mousetoon…
The hearing is over, the judge reserves her decision. Back in the hall, and there is even more police and Carabinieri. About 10 (possibly even some representative of the services, those who “haunt” the Court). Il Piccolo’s photographer ambushes me (doesn’t it require an authorization? Isn’t the President of the Court the only one who can issue one?).
The journalist “captures” the lawyer of the State and Equitalia’s. This is their natural environment, under the very protection of the local “system”. All they have to do is to spread fake news. The newspaper is going to publish it all as true.
I let the merry lords of the Italian system celebrating their Pyrrhic victory. Off to the Chancellor’s office: I lodge the rejection regarding all judicial bodies of the “fake” Court of Appeal of Trieste (the Italian one) regarding political movement “Free Trieste Movement” and its members and supporters.
A new phase in the legal battle for the Free Territory of Trieste has begun.
Tratto dal blog “Ambiente e Legalità” di Roberto Giurastante