Justice, publishing the custody order prohibited: the Cdm ok the text of the legislative decree

The controversial regulation has passed through the Council of Ministers. Now the precise text of the remand order becomes de facto secret and the press will not be able to publish it. At least not immediately. On 4 September, the Council of Ministers approved the text of the legislative decree on the amendment of Article 114 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, providing for a ban on the publication of the text of pre-trial detention orders until the end of the preliminary investigation or until the end of the preliminary hearing.

The change had already been decided several months ago in Parliament when the Senate approved Article 4 of the law adapting national legislation to the provisions of the European directive. It was an amendment by the deputy from Azione, Enrico Costa, that started the process during its passage through the House. There is therefore a return to what was established by the 2017 reform of the then minister Andrea Orlando, according to which ordinances are publishable without limit. With the new rules, instead, only the content of the act will be publishable, without being able to quote it in inverted commas, and only the charge in full can be faithfully reported. Finally, in the last few hours, a further decisive step has been taken to make the new rule, included in the legislative decrees approved by the Cabinet, a reality. Now the text decided by the government will be submitted to the reading and possible suggestions, though not binding, of the two Justice Committees of the House and Senate within sixty days.

This is not the only hot topic on the Justice front. The Superior Council of the Magistracy is now grappling with internal battles that also involve the appointment of Catania's chief prosecutor. At the Csm, the case of Rosanna Natoli, a lay member of the council in the Fratelli d'Italia quota, is back in the spotlight. A few months ago she was accused of having revealed acts of investigation to the magistrate Maria Fascetto Sivillo, who was convicted by the court of Messina and was facing a disciplinary measure. In these hours, Natoli has submitted a request to the presidential committee of the Csm to annul all the plenum deliberations of last 17 July, for having been prevented from attending the session with actions that have 'terrorised, forced and psychically raped her by Area and Md councillors'. Statements denied and returned to sender by the representatives of the two groups. In her request, Natoli specifies that she had been told of a councillor of the Csm, who 'had informed the vice president that if I had entered the council chamber to take part in the plenum's work (on 17 July, when the vote was taken for the appointment of Catania's prosecutor) they would have, at the opening and in connection with Radio Radicale, broadcast the transcript of the contents of the Usb flash drive'. The same flash drive allegedly contains the spontaneous statements made during a hearing on 16 July at the Ssm by magistrate Sivillo, concerning the affair that ended up in the acts of the enquiry in which Natoli is under investigation. Beyond the controversy, there is more in that plenum's petition for annulment, in which Natoli makes particular reference to the conferment of the executive office of Catania prosecutor on Francesco Curcio. This is why some of the candidates for that role are now considering the hypothesis of lodging an appeal against Curcio's appointment to the office and, in the meantime, of deferring possession of the office. The other three candidates were deputy prosecutors in the same office: Sebastiano Ardita, Ignazio Fonzo and Francesco Puleio (later unanimously proposed as prosecutor in Ragusa). In the meantime, the Presidential Committee of the Csm has been dealing in these hours with the motion concerning Natoli's removal, to be brought to the plenum on 11 September.