An ordinary case of Italian injustice. Or, even better, of the perfect functioning of Italian justice agains the weak. This is what we assisted to these days, in the Court of Trieste.
An old lady, in a precarious state of health and in serious financial need stands before Court: she must respond about a debt she cannot repay. The creditor should receive some couple hundreds of Euro, yet, he did not hesitate to open a legal proceeding, due to the weakness of the counterpart.
The person liable for payment cannot oppose to the executive procedure because she has no money to hire a lawyer. And this is how the debt increases. Legal expenses, court fees, interests, thousands of Euro more.
The creditor demands the foreclosure of her bank account, on hold for the decision of the judge. But that postal current account is co-owned with the husband of the debtor and it is where the pensions of the couple are payed, and they have no other sources of income. The debtor’s husband is also hospitalized at a retirement home. He cannot take care of himself, and the fee of the rest home is granted with the pension – again, payed on the current account that is now foreclosed.
The lady calls for help: she asks the Free Trieste Movement‘s legal assistance. And she receives it thanks to the sensitivity of our lawyer. So, the old lady goes before Court with our lawyer. This is the validation hearing of the proceeding to foreclose the current account. It is about deciding of the life of two old and ill persons who are now deprived of all means of subsistence after the foreclosure of the current account on which they receive the pension. The lawyer is serious in presenting the woman’s situation as he seeks the Court to allow her to repay her debts in installments.
The law establishes that it is illegal retaining more than 1/5 of the pension. But nearly all creditors exploit the loopholes of law and, instead of demanding the retaliation of that fifth part to the body that pays the pension (or the salary) they wait for the whole sum to be credited on the bank account (which is now compulsory by law) of the debtor, becoming available, only to ask for its compete confiscation to the complacent functionaries of the credit institution or the Posts.
Then, the decision must be validated by a judge but, in the meantime, the debtor becomes victim of an unlawful behaviour – yet, covered by the law.
Often, the salary or the pension are the only source of infime of the debtor who, suddenly, has its very right to survive denied.
To this point, the judge would have the moral duty – before a legal obligation – to remedy the situation that has exceeded all limits of human decency and allowing the e repayment in instalments, despite the opposition of the lawyer of the creditor.
The old lady in front of him could be his mother, she barely stands using a stick, which seems to support the weight of all of her years and sorrows. But the judge does not want to side against the system that defends the strong ones at the expenses of the poor: this is the unwritten rule of a law that is not equal for all, not in the Republic of corruption.
So, the judge postpones the decision to the next hearing, scheduled on September 14th, at 9AM, but allowing the poor victim to request the unblock of the current account only presenting a appearance before Court within September 5th.
Rather difficult when one has not even the money to eat once a day and who should now spend thousand of Euro for an act which would have no value. Because the judge does not explain how should the lady survive for one and a half month without sources of income.
Wither she begs or she steals. Because soup kitchens have less and less space for the people of Trieste and all they can do for you is to provide a meal per day. By now, the refectories for the poor are already filled with immigrants and refugees.
But the judge doesn’t care about it. He hides behind procedures. Scholars and law experts call it aridità della legge (aridity of the law). An inhuman law, enforced by functionaries who serve this reverted and illegitimate justice. Because the judge who took this decision is a Honorary Magistrate.
It is those odd figures who should not even operate in Trieste, as that constitutes a breach of the Treaty of Peace of 1947, which grants to the Free Territory an actual judge (not an honorary magistrate) lawfully elected by the provisional government. The already questionable (as it violates the Constitution of the Republic of Italy) figure of honorary magistrate is twice as much illegal in Trieste as the law which establishes it has never been extended to the Free Territory.
A magistrate who acts outside the law against the citizens of the Free Territory of Trieste, deprived of all rights by the local nationalistic establishment. Citizens of an independent State who are eliminated to make room for the convenient immigrants to whom Italy grants all rights: ethnical cleansing, under the protection of the European Union.
Soon, the Triestines must decide if they want to wake up from this nightmare. Either way, this or they accept, for ever, their conditions of slavery and misery, under the heel of the most corrupted State in Europe. Either with international law or with the institutional Italian Mafia. There are no other choices.
Translated from blog “Environment and Legality” – “Ambiente e Legalità” by Roberto Giurastante