An impediment to life imprisonment is incompatible with the Constitution but legislative action is required.
This was established by the Constitutional Court, which gives Parliament one year.
The Council examined the legitimacy issues raised by the Court of Cassation on the regime applicable to those sentenced to life imprisonment for mafia and mafia-related crimes who have not collaborated with the courts and who seek access to conditional release.
And he found - as a note from the Press Office informs - that the current discipline of the so-called impediment life sentence absolutely precludes, to those who have not usefully collaborated with the courts, the possibility of accessing the procedure to request conditional release, even when his repentance is sure.
He then observed that this impeding discipline, making collaboration the only way for the condemned to recover freedom, is in contrast with Articles 3 and 27 of the Constitution and with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, immediate acceptance of the issues would risk fitting inadequately in the current system of combating organized crime.
The Court therefore decided to postpone the discussion of the issues to May 2022, to allow the legislator to take action that takes into account both the peculiar nature of the crimes connected with organized crime of the mafia type, and the related prison rules, and the need to preserve the value of collaboration with justice in these cases.
The order will be filed in the coming weeks.
