Work is in full swing in the Senate Judiciary Commission. There are two main directions along which we are moving, as well as the most discussed by public opinion, due to their many implications: the abolition of the crime of clandestinity and the bills on amnesty and pardon.
Clandestine – The first yes has already arrived. The Senate Justice Commission, as announced by Undersecretary Cosimo Maria Ferri, has given the green light to the amendment, presented by two senators from the 5 Star Movement, which effectively abolishes the crime of illegal immigration.
The law, which received a favorable vote from Pd and Sel and the go-ahead from the Government, concerns the delegation of probation, but intervenes only on the part relating to the crime of illegal entry and stay, introduced by law 94 of 2009 on the subject of public security, as an amendment to law 286 of 1998, the so-called Bossi-Fini, while all the proceedings for expulsion and all other types of crimes included by Bossi-Fini remain standing.
There were many comments from the political world on this first regulatory step. They range from the satisfaction of Pd ("A good start") and Civic Choice ("Excellent news") to the silence of the Pdl, broken only by a tweet from Mariastella Gelmini ("Abolished the crime of illegal immigration? Are we crazy?" ), passing through the indignation of the League ("A shame"), which accuses Alfano and the PDL of having voted in favor of the amendment, behaving in an inconsistent manner.
The amendment will then have to pass to the Chamber, through a process that has suddenly become complicated in the last few minutes, following a post on the blog by Beppe Grillo, signed by the Genoese comedian and by Gianroberto Casaleggio who have, in fact, disavowed the work of the two senators, Maurizio Buccarella and Andrea Cioffi, who presented the amendment: “Their position in the Justice Committee is entirely personal, it was not part of the program. We do not agree both on the method and on the merits”. And then, “yesand during the political elections, had we proposed the abolition of the crime of illegal immigration, the M5S would have obtained percentages from the telephone area code”. Now it will be necessary to see how the grillini will behave in the next parliamentary appointments.
Pardon and amnesty – The other hot front that will see the Senate Judiciary Commission involved is that of amnesty and pardon after the appeal of the Head of State to deal with the prison emergency. The related bills presented by Senators Compagna (Gal) and Manconi (Pd) will be examined on Tuesday 15 October.
Manconi's proposal follows the one already presented to the Chamber on 26 March by Pd deputy Sandro Gozi: the amnesty would involve all crimes committed by 14 March 2013 for which a prison sentence not exceeding 4 years is established, i.e. a pecuniary, alone or combined with prison, without prejudice to some exclusions for crimes characterized by greater social danger and harmful to legal assets of particularly high constitutional rank. The same goes for the pardon, granted for 3 years in general and 5 only for prisoners in serious health conditions.
Compagna's text, on the other hand, speaks of sentences not exceeding 4 years and eliminates the notion of "financial crime", which is particularly discussed at the moment;
There is much talk these days about the possible consequences of the pardon on the sentence suffered by Silvio Berlusconi. According to Donatella Stasio, in an article published yesterday in "Il Sole 24 Ore", if the quick pardon were adopted, following the 2006 model, the Knight could avoid being entrusted to social services.
In this situation, however, also the other judicial pending matters weigh, in particular that relating to the Ruby case. In any case, for the pardon to extinguish the residual sentence (one year), the law should be approved in a relatively short time, i.e. within 6-8 months, the time necessary for the Court of Milan to decide on the request for probation of Berlsuconi, who is currently in the condition of "free suspended sentenced person".
