17 October Movement: Youssef Siher is released. Meloni: ‘Shameful’. The CSM calls for protection for the Milan investigating magistrate

Youssef Siher, the 30-year-old Italian researcher of Moroccan origin, has been released. He was arrested last Saturday night in his capacity as administrator of the Telegram channel “Movimento 17 ottobre”, which was set up following two days of looting and destruction in Milan. This is the decision of Investigating Magistrate Tiziana Landoni, who rejected the request to confirm the arrest and to apply the precautionary measure of detention in prison proposed by Public Prosecutor Francesca Crupi, who is leading the investigation alongside Prosecutor Marcello Viola.

The prosecutors have charged him, and his wife – who is under investigation but remains at liberty – with the offences of incitement to commit a criminal offence, with the aggravating circumstance of terrorism, and organised violence during a public demonstration. The judge upheld the defence’s argument, put forward by lawyers Benedetto Ciccarone and Yasmina Abu Sharar, which had challenged the prosecutors’ account of events and the need for precautionary measures.

Through the content published on the Telegram chat group ‘Movimento 17 ottobre’, the investigating judge writes, Siher expressed ‘forms of protest’ against ‘current government policies’, as well as ‘calling for acts of “civil disobedience”’, but these do not “result in violent or, more generally, criminal behaviour, but rather in the mere organisation of weekly demonstrations, designed to raise awareness and engage as many people as possible”.

“A shameful decision.” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s verdict is unequivocal; in a video posted on social media, she comments as follows on the decision by the Milan investigating judge. “I believe,” she adds, “that this is an unbearable affront to the work of the police, the investigators, the Home Office and, more generally, all those who strive to protect law-abiding citizens from the risk of seeing their towns and businesses devastated.”

Shortly afterwards, the leadership of the Milan Court issued a response: statements by ‘prominent political figures’, including those holding ‘institutional’ posts, are ‘inadmissible and reveal a lack of understanding – whether genuine or feigned – of the legal institutions of a state governed by the rule of law’, write the Court’s senior officials, Fabio Roia and Ezia Maccora. The judge ‘applies constitutional principles of legal civilisation’ and ‘shame pertains to other spheres of social life, not the responsible and difficult exercise of judicial authority’. The judge ‘applies constitutional principles of legal civilisation’. And they add: ‘Shame pertains to other spheres of social life, not to the responsible and difficult exercise of judicial authority’.