ABSTRACT: Camera dei Deputati, March 23, 1982. The Italian Minister of the Interior answered questions from the Radical members of Parliament on the current alleged torture by the Italian police of terrorists arrested for kidnapping the American general James Lee Dozier. Sciascia's reply.

("Single issue" booklet for the XXXV Congress of The Radical Party - Budapest 22-26 april 1989)

I should like briefly to linger on things which have already been said, to confirm them in my own way. Yesterday evening I listened very carefully to the speech of the Minister of the Interior and I got the feeling of a warning from it, a sort of alert: take care, you are objectively reaching the terrorists' position!

Personally, I have had enough of this accusation! In Italy, you only have to search for the truth to be accused of joining up with black or red terrorism, with the Mafia, with P2 or anything else! As a citizen and as a writer, I can also suffer a similar accusation, but as a member of Parliament I do not accept it. One is not turning to terrorism by simply worrying about the problem of torture. This problem has been turned inside out in the press: we have dutifully received it here, we are stirring it up, and will stir it up even more!

The only time I met Sartre, was after the suicide (or murder) of some terrorists in prison in Germany. Sartre said something which impressed me deeply, and which made me admire and respect him more than I already did: that he was not doing anything because he had doubts. We have not come here or at least I myself personally with certitudes but with doubts. The Minister has made an awkward move because, interrogated on individual cases, he replied as if we had levelled an accusation against the whole police force: and this wasn't true! In particular, I questioned rumours from the police itself. The Minister did not deign to reply to my question and did not even touch on it.