Italian wife does not save foreigner from deportation if dangerous to public order

Green light to expulsion of a foreigner, even if married to an Italian citizen, if dangerous to public order and safety. The Court of Cassation thus rejected the appeal by imam Bouchta El Allam, 46, of Moroccan origin, who was sentenced in 2022 by the Court of Turin to six months' imprisonment for propaganda and incitement to crime on grounds ofethnic and religious racial discrimination. Crimes for which the protection provided by Article 8 of the European Court of Human Rights, protecting private and family life is not triggered.

The Supreme Court upheld the decision of theCourt of Appeal which, unlike the Court, had consideredthe expulsion order to be legitimate. According to the territorial court, 'in the balance between the need to protect public order and security and the protection of the right to private and family life, there are, in the case in question, public profiles of a current and imperious nature such as to justify the restriction of Mr El Allam's right of residence and the sacrifice of his right to his private and family life'.

The second instance judges had emphasised the appellant's behaviour during his stay in Italy. Behaviour that is relevant in the news these days and that arouses alarm among citizens," reads the judgement, "disturbing the quiet life of citizens and giving rise to the widespread phenomenon of insecurity and fear complained of by the mass media.

From the reading of the sentence handed down by the Turin judges in 2022, it emerged 'that the foreigner, taking advantage of the role of Imam, de facto attributed to himself, during the period of detention at the prison in Alexandria, taking advantage of the prayer meetings, he extolled religious propaganda, pointing the finger at Jews and Christians as enemies of Muslims, describing them as 'monkeys and pigs', wishing that the Christmas festivities could turn into a massacre and into 'hell', invoking God to punish 'the enemies of religion with death'.

The Prefect, as the provincial public security body, had found that Bouchta El Allam had repeatedly engaged the police forces because of his unlawful conduct. And, therefore, that he was a person who was a danger to public order and safety and not worthy of remaining in the country. The subjective prerequisite for expulsion was therefore to be found in the fact that the applicant belonged to one of the categories envisaged by Article 1 of the Anti-Mafia Code (Legislative Decree 159/2011), specifically that of persons dangerous to public safety and tranquillity. A conclusion 'deduced from the global assessment of his entire personality resulting from all the social manifestations of his life with regard to his entire conduct and in an assessment in relation to the persistence over time of an unlawful and antisocial behaviour'.