The Roman greeting and the call of the 'present' are "a ritual evocative of the gestures typical of the dissolved fascist party" which therefore "integrates the crime provided for by article 5 of the Scelba law"
where,
"having regard to all the circumstances of the case, is suitable to integrate the concrete danger of reorganization of the dissolved fascist party".
This is what the United Sections of the Court of Cassation crystallized when they were called upon to unravel the knot of the fascist salute - after a series of sentences from the same Court which went in different directions - in relation to an affair from April 2016 which took place in Milan in during a commemoration of
Sergio Ramelli, Carlo Borsani and Enrico Pedenovi.
A decision welcomed with "respectful recognition" by sources close to the President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, who awaited the position of the united sections "with interest" on this issue because he believed "clarity was needed".
It is a sentence "which speaks for itself and to which nothing else needs to be added", explain the same sources from Palazzo Madama
.
The Supreme Court, after 3 hours of deliberation, then ordered a new appeal process for the 8 defendants who had been acquitted in the first instance but then condemned by the judges in the second instance.
The request of the prosecutor was not accepted and, in asking for confirmation of the sentence, he argued that "the fascist salute falls within the punitive perimeter of the Mancino law when it creates a concrete danger to public order".
However, the judges of the palace do not completely exclude the reference to the latter law.
"Under certain conditions - they state - there may also be a violation of the Mancino law which prohibits "external or usual demonstrations of organisations, associations, movements or groups which have among their aims the incitement to discrimination or violence for racial reasons , ethnic, national or religious".
Therefore "the two crimes can concur both materially and formally in the presence of the legal conditions".
The United Sections, awaiting the reasons that will further clarify the sentence, have therefore "requalified" the facts pursuant to the law approved in 1952 and in particular in the article which states that "whoever, participating in public meetings, carries out usual demonstrations of the dissolved fascist party or of Nazi organizations is punished with a prison sentence of up to three years and a fine".
The contested sentence brought to the attention of the Ermellini had considered that the disputed facts integrated the case of the Mancino law.
The United Sections are now asking the Court of Appeal of Milan to verify "whether the facts ascertained lead to the existence of a concrete danger of reorganization of the dissolved fascist party".
The defenses cut short on what was decided, for which the Court of Cassation ruled today "that the Roman salute is not a crime".
"If both the attempt to reconstitute the fascist party or discrimination programs are missing, it is obviously not a crime
- states the lawyer Domenico Di Tullio -. The 'present' ceremony can therefore only be done when it is a commemorative act as in the specific case. In the case of Acca Larentia and in the thousands of commemorations carried out in Italy over the last 70 years, the Roman salute is not a crime. It will be up to the judiciary to concretely demonstrate the opposite, without making small talk."
Same reading by Casapound.
"It's a historic victory that silences everyone, with all due respect to those who call for exemplary convictions and sentences at everyone present" says the far-right movement which then reiterates: "we will continue to give the Roman salute".
The lawyer has a completely different opinion Emilio Ricci, lawyer of the ANPI, for whom the decision establishes "some fundamental criteria that distinguish Roman greetings as an individual expression from those of a general nature with several people which recall all the signs and rituals of a fascist type and which can be read as reconstitution of the fascist party". This is echoed by the criminal lawyer Francesco Romeo according to whom "while waiting to read the reasons, the decision can be summarized as follows: for the Roman salute to constitute a crime under the Scelba law it must be associated with the existence of the concrete danger of reorganization of the dissolved fascist party and, under certain conditions, the 'fascist salute' can integrate the crime provided for by the Mancino decree.
The two crimes can concur and this means that both the Scelba law and the Mancino decree can be violated with the same gesture."
For further information ANSA Agency What does article 5 of the Scelba law provide - News - Ansa.it "Whoever, participating in public meetings, carries out usual demonstrations of the dissolved fascist party or of Nazi organizations is punished with a prison sentence of up to three years and with a fine of between two hundred thousand and five hundred thousand lire. (ANSA)
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA