From left to right: Vito Potenza (TL3 President), Paolo Degenutti (TL3 advisor) and Nicola Sponza (TL3 Secretary); he just denied the Free Territory of Trieste before Court.
Trieste, June 12th, 2015. – On June 11th there was a surprising public hearing. Discussing criminal proceeding No. 1456/14, lawyer Nicola Sponza claimed that Trieste is under full Italian sovereignty.
Sponza is also the political secretary of Movement “Territorio Libero” and a representative of “Triest NGO” as well as candidate of the the newly established political party “Liberazione Triestina”.
The trial follows Sponza’s complaint agains Roberto Giurastante, President of the Free Trieste Movement, the main organization working for Trieste’s rights and legitimate independence. Sponza’s group, led by Vito Potenza, left Free Trieste in 2014, by violent means. The event animated local chronicles for a long time.
As he always does, Roberto Giurastante raised an exception denying Italian jurisdiction over Trieste. The exception includes a summary about the Free Territory’s establishment (1947) as an independent sovereign State, and its entrustment, to the Italian Government’s temporary civil administration (1954).
Sponza and his lawyer opposed the exception, sought and obtained the hearing’s suspension, and then claimed Italian sovereignty over Trieste lodging some well-known Italian judgments that claim the Free Territory either never existed or ceased to in 1954.
According to Free Trieste, it is at least surprising, regardless of personal opinions or the trial’s ultimate outcome, that the same politician presents himself as a representative of the struggle for Trieste’s independence to the voters, and as a supporter of Trieste’s italianità before Court.
Press office of the Free Trieste Movement