A more precise penal law without the risk of unconstitutionality. A new and more articulated regulation of the transitional phase of the Cartabia reform of the criminal trial. Thus changes the decree law, the first of the Meloni government, on raves, criminal trial and impediment to life imprisonment. In fact, the Ministry of Justice broke the delay and formalized the corrections to highly controversial measures.
More precise criminal law
The first intervention is on the introduction of the new offense to counter forms of public gatherings that endanger public order. A highly contested provision and considered susceptible to an interpretation, in the absence of distinctions and clarifications, in contrast with the freedom of public assembly guaranteed by the Constitution. Now the Ministry of Justice first of all circumscribes the perimeter of criminal relevance, limiting it to the conduct of those who organize or promote a musical or entertainment gathering with invasion of land or buildings, with concrete danger to public health or safety. The violation of the rules on drugs and the safety and hygiene of the shows was decisive. Also deleted the reference to the participation of more than 50 people.
Prison and confiscation
“In this way – explains the Ministry of Justice -, the unlawful conduct is now referred to precise situations, fully defined, in their offensive traits, with respect to which the greater penalty penalty is justified”. Greater rigor which is reflected in the extent of the sentence, which remains between a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 years of imprisonment, a punitive “range” which continues to legitimize even the carrying out of wiretaps, if deemed necessary by the investigative forces. Furthermore, to increase the deterrent force of the law, there is always a wide-ranging confiscation, both of the product or profit of the crime, and of the things functional to its commission.
Soft entry into force for the Cartabia reform
But the amendments of the Justice also intervene extensively on the new criminal trial, the entry into force of which the decree law has postponed to 30 December. A transitional phase is thus foreseen for the most significant changes, those that would have put the Public Prosecutors in particular in difficulty, net had been a document by all the General Prosecutors in this sense, without clear indications for their implementation. Thus we intervene on the new conditions of prosecution, from office to lawsuit, for a series of crimes (first of all theft), on the new terms of duration and extension of the preliminary investigations, clarifying that they will apply only to the new files, on the sentences of no place to proceed and on the hearing prior to the trial.
No life imprisonment
The third chapter of the decree on the justice front, the measures on life imprisonment and on the conditions under which even those convicted of some serious crimes, who do not collaborate with the judiciary and the police, can still access the prison benefits. It will be the parliamentary front, in the Senate Justice Committee, where we will vote next Tuesday, that will (perhaps) untie the remaining knots.