Edoardo Barelli Innocenti: “Magistrates must follow heroes as an example”

TURIN. “Everyone and in particular the magistrates must take an example from the heroes.” The president of the Court of Appeal Edoardo Barelli Innocenti opens the inauguration ceremony of the judicial year 2022 with a memory of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. “All magistrates must take an example from these people.” And he talks about the Palamara scandal. “Nothing has ever been hidden in the 2019 affair, upright magistrates have investigated some of the criminal behaviors of their colleagues. Someone talked about the Palamara system, but apart from the attempt of the Champagne hotel do we really believe that all the appointments were connected to power games? We are careful to think that everything has to be thrown away, because in this way we risk throwing the baby out with the bath water ». The third power is the “most fragile” and “needs particular attention from society which must become aware of the vital importance of the autonomy and independence of the judiciary”. Here you are. Barelli Innocenti’s speech revolves around these values ​​which, “together with the impartiality and impartiality of the judge, are the very foundations of due process”. The assumption of the latter is precisely the “freedom of the judge which must not be conditioned in any way, neither from the outside nor from the inside of the judicial system”.

This is why “any intervention on the judiciary must be carefully weighed before being adopted. And referendums are not the ideal tool for establishing mandatory rules for such a delicate matter, which concerns the guarantees of all citizens. Nobody – continues the president of the Court of Appeal of Turin – denies the need for even profound reforms of the judicial system, but these must take into account the fundamental principles and the safeguarding of judicial functions. Every sentence necessarily displeases someone, but the whole system, in the three levels of judgment, is built to avoid the error in the decision. Which is never simple or taken with a light heart ». Barelli Innocenti addresses the magistrates who, he argues, “should not enter political competition, even at an administrative level, because they betray their ideal choice”. Of course, doing it «is the right of every citizen. But a magistrate who takes this choice should have the courage not to go back to being a magistrate. It is time for the law to provide, the time is ripe ».
The words of the President of the Criminal Chamber, Alberto De Sanctis
«President Barelli Innocenti recalled that sentences always displease someone and for this reason there are two degrees of judgment of merit and one of legitimacy. So let’s defend the appeals from temptations to extend the cases of inadmissibility that represent a filter at risk of arbitrariness – comments the lawyer Alberto De Sanctis, president of the “Vittorio Chiusano” criminal chamber – If anything, it is necessary to abolish the appeal of the public prosecutor. An appeal by cassation is sufficient. Also because against the sentence on appeal, following acquittal in the first instance, there is no re-examination on the merits in clear violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We share the perplexities of the Attorney General on the constitutional legitimacy of the inadmissibility. It would have been better to return to the traditional system of prescription to overcome the “eternal process” introduced by Bonafede ».