ABSTRACT: Sciascia denounces the Italian "championship" for justice: thousands of citizens acquitted after long periods of preventive custody; the inability to cope with accusations brought by the citizens. Therefor it is not enough to debate on this very serious problem in Italy. By now it must be stirred up in Europe, in that Europe which calls itself free, the Europe of democracies to which Italy belongs.

(NOTIZIE RADICALI no.69, April 14, 1984)

"104,000 citizens have been fully acquitted and 111,000 for insufficient evidence during the five years from 1978-1982. But they had to wait a long time - in some cases for several years - before seeing themselves recognised as innocent. And what is more, after having unjustly been kept in preventive custody, they have no right even to a penny in indemnity... In Italy the judiciary does not manage to cope quickly with the avalanche of accusations and declarations that land daily on the desks of the magistrates and the state attorneys' offices. It is enough to consider that on January 1 last year there were still 1,504,000 penal inquiries pending, 644,000 of them opened in 1982, except for theft, however. Except for theft because it seems that theft in Italy is a type of crime that is on the way to extinction if one looks at the judicial documentation. In fact, the contrary is true. Just because of the dizzying increase and since experience shows how all the charges brought by victimised citizens end in

nothing (without mentioning the waste of time and the frequent suspicion that the person bringing the charges is simulating), Italians have become used to letting the matter drop, not to bring charges, especially if the damage is not very great.

I don't know what other country can boast of a similar record in the administration of justice. And the words "boast" and "record" are not used incidentally. If nothing is done to correct this situation, to reform and renew it, it means that the ruling class, in which the judges are a pre-eminent part, in effect is satisfied with such a situation and enjoys it even while lamenting it officially. And one should consider that these frightful statistics refer to the years 1978-1982, and that a noteworthy increase is entirely predictable for the five year period we are now passing through. Essentially unfair laws, such as the one on "repentance" (1), which were devised as exceptional and limited measures for fighting terrorism, have been in practice extended to combat other forms of criminality and criminality in general, thus giving rise to unutterable confusion and greater difficulty in arriving at the truth. That laws of this kind have had some effect in the fight against terrorism does not mean that t

hey are truly and intrinsically "laws" since it is inconceivable that laws should not be drawn from an idea of justice and the respect for freedom, which are fundamental in a democracy, and the pursuit of the truth. It is undeniable that Fascism, in combating more or less organised crime, obtained results that one says brought "order": but any kind of disorder was and is preferable to Fascism.

Thus the problem of justice in Italy is very serious, becoming more and more involved and complicated. The point has been reached where it is not enough to debate it - assuming that there is serious debate - in Italy. By now one must be stirred up in Europe, in that Europe which calls itself free, in the Europe of democracies to which Italy belongs, so that it will be truly belong with respect to the rights of its own citizens. Orwell's 1984 seems to find an Italian version precisely in the administration of justice. To those in Italy who ask about Sacharov and the Soviet dissidents in Russia, Cernienko might give a just and merited reply if he said that Italy should rather take a look at what is happening there in the way of administering justice.

(From the »Corriere della Sera , July 8, 1984)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

1) Repentance - A law giving special treatment to captured terrorists who "repented" and collaborated with the authorities.