(ANSA) - Justice Minister Roberto Castelli was under fire on Monday over a reform bill which critics say has been tailor-made to demolish the corruption convictions of a close aide of Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The bill, which passes to the House this week for a definitive vote, reduces the statute of limitations on a host of crimes including corruption, false accounting, theft and fraud.
The opposition and magistrates have long demanded that Castelli release data showing the bill's impact on trials, arguing that this information is vital to the House debate. House Speaker Pier Ferdinando Casini weighed in on Monday saying that MPs must be given the figures.
In a letter to Castelli, Casini said the House Justice Affairs Committee made a specific request for the report on September 15, contradicting a claim by the minister that only President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi had asked for the information.
The opposition, which has dubbed the draft law the 'Save Previti Bill' after Berlusconi's former lawyer and one-time defence minister Cesare Previti, also said it had made two official requests.
Castelli said on Sunday that "the only institution which has so far requested the data on the bill's impact is the president's office." He said the report had been duly sent to Ciampi's office on September 29.
The minister, whose report has been compiled from data supplied by Italian appeals courts, said last month that he would release the figures "as soon as possible". At the same time, he contested claims by judicial organisations that 30-40% of all trials would be affected by the bill and that the number of crimes left unpunished because of the statue of limitations would triple.
"Everyone is saying his bit, supplying data on the bill's impact that has no foundation... All these figures are incorrect and nobody who has spoken out possesses reliable data," he said.
The judges and prosecutors' union, the National Association of Magistrates (ANM), stepped up criticism of the minister on Monday, accusing him of "wilful inertia". The Milan branch of ANM said that "the criminal trial system in this country has already been reduced to a pre-comatose state. With this law, its death will be certified."
It stressed that the reforms would also apply to trials that were already in the appeal process. "This is totally unreasonable and incomprehensible... There is no plausible explanation except for the thought that this reform is solely designed to avoid the natural conclusion of several noted trials which have already gone to appeal," it said. Senator Previti is appealing two convictions for
corruption.
GOVERNMENT DENIES BILL CONNECTED TO PREVITI
The government denies the bill is in any way related to Previti, stressing that most of the reforms are aimed at repeat offenders. They say the bill will increase jail terms for 'career criminals', Mafia bosses and those convicted of Mafia association.
House Justice Affairs Committee chief Gaetano Pecorella, who is also Berlusconi's personal lawyer, said on Monday that "I hope this bill passes because it is a just law which prevents punishment being inflicted 15 or 20 years after a crime is committed." The rightist National Alliance (AN), Berlusconi's biggest coalition ally, denied that the bill would "favour any one individual."
"The part we're interested in is the second part, that is, the crackdown on repeat offenders," it said.
Other bill supporters argued that it would force the magistrature to speed up trials. Under Italy's three-tier justice system, in which defendants are entitled to two appeals before a sentence is
considered final, the average criminal trial takes more than 1,500 days from preliminary hearings to a definitive appeals verdict.
But critics say the bill will function as a "perennial amnesty" for many criminals given the slow pace of the Italian justice system. Italian criminal lawyers held a one-day strike last month in protest.
The judiciary's self-governing body, the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), has also criticised the law. The CSM, of which Ciampi is the honorary president, said earlier this year that it would have "devastating effects" on the justice system.
Crimes ranging from corruption, violence and fraud to usury and revealing state secrets would all be affected, it said. Taking as an example an appeals court in Bologna, the CSM said 47% of proceedings would be scrapped if the bill became law, amounting to some 4,500 trials.
The centre-right governing coalition, including Minister Castelli, immediately accused the CSM of political manoeuvring. The draft law was approved by the House last December but subsequent adjustments in the Senate made a second House reading necessary. The bill's supporters fear time is running out on them. The chamber's attentions are about to be monopolised by the budget while parliament will be dissolved early next year ahead of spring general elections.
The bill must also be signed into law by Ciampi, who last year sent another controversial justice reform bill back to parliament for revisions. Previti, meanwhile, has strongly denied he will benefit
from the law. The 70-year-old senator issued a statement when the bill was first approved by the House saying that "I'm sure I won't need to use this law - which protects tens of thousands of
citizens and not just Cesare Previti - because the two trials in which I am involved are so absurd that impartial judges will resolve them with a full acquittal and I will walk out of them with my head held high."
Previti is appealing a five-year conviction for bribing judges in a company takeover case in which the premier was subsequently acquitted. He is also appealing an 11-year term in another
judge-bribery case involving the premier's business activities. Under the new bill, Previti's alleged crimes were no longer punishable as of the end of 2004. Under the current system, they are punishable until 2009.
