Prisons, convicted in Italy pays for social services abroad. The lawyer: “A revolution”

“It is a Copernican revolution”. Thus the lawyer Alexandro Maria Tirelli comments with AdnKronos on the order with which the Supervisory Court of Brescia granted his client, Philippe Buchet, convicted by an Italian Court, the possibility of serving the residual sentence in the place where resides, namely Belgium. A few days ago, in fact, the TdS of Brescia (president Ezia Gardoni), issued an order on the assumption that “the applicant, currently free, must atone, by virtue of the execution order for imprisonment and contextual decree of suspension of the same, issued on 5.7.2018 by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Bergamo – Criminal Execution Office, the residual sentence of two years, six months and eight days of imprisonment “after a three-year sentence for international cocaine trafficking. The Board, according to the ordinance, “observes how the conditions of legitimacy and merit exist for the acceptance of the request for probationary assignment to social services to be performed in the country of habitual residence of the applicant, ie Belgium. To this end, legislative decree no.38 of 15 February 2016 is applied, which contains provisions to conform domestic law to the framework decision no.2008 / 947 / Gai of the European Council of 27 November 2008, aimed at extending between the States of the Union the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions relating to the execution of sentences that are not restrictive of personal freedom, in view of the surveillance of probation measures and alternative sanctions in order to guarantee their execution in the place of residence to favor the social reintegration of the sentenced person, allowing him to maintain family, linguistic and cultural ties with the country of habitual residence where he is given its center of interests “. For the TdS, therefore,” the impediment to the exercise of authoritative powers outside the national territory, by reason of the transfer of competence for the surveillance of the obligations and prescriptions imparted to the competent authorities of the executing state “. Even the Court of Cassation, notes the College,” has now sanctioned this orientation, stating that in terms of alternative measures to detention, following the entry into force of the legislative decree February 15, 2016, n. 38, admission to probation for social service is allowed, the execution of which must take place in a foreign member state of the European Union where the offender has legal and habitual residence, in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned legislative decree (Sentence no. . 20977 of 15/06/2020) “. From here, accepting the requests of the defender, the probationary assignment to the social service for the condemned with a series of prescriptions.” It is a Copernican revolution – observes the lawyer Tirelli -, because even if the Italian legal system had conformed to the European decision, in reality the Supervisory Courts disallowed it completely due to its smokiness and the difficulty of applying it practically. Difficulty relating to verifying the behavior of the offender who allegedly served the alternative sentence abroad. If social services are discounted in Italy, checks are possible, but by paying them abroad how can you do it? “. So, adds the lawyer,” it is a gigantic decision, because we have thousands of Italians or non-Italians condemned by national courts that reside or live abroad, not to mention those who commit crimes by us ‘passing’ through Italy, I am thinking above all of immigrants, a large portion of those convicted in Italy. What has happened so far is that we as Italy found ourselves issuing a lot of arrest warrants or not executing sentences, thus creating a sort of ‘suspended’ justice because when the execution orders arrived, those who were abroad did not come. in Italy to serve his sentence, because he did not live in Italy and could not even ask the Italian Surveillance Courts to grant the alternative measure in the place where he resided. Here, with the decision of the TdS of Brescia, everything changes, because now I can be one of Bari, to say, who works in Hanover, convicted by the Court of Rome but with the possibility of carrying out social services in Hanover “. For the lawyer, therefore, “cooperation between countries in the field of criminal execution is welcome, but as long as the European Judges also grant the same benefits to be applied in Italy”. The same lawyer, however, also underlines some of his perplexities: “The surveillance magistrate with whom will you speak? With foreign social workers? Will he be able to supervise effectively? Obvious legislative gaps must be filled, including at the level of European standardization, but in any case this ruling represents a further disintegration of national sovereignty also within the ‘sovereign’ judiciary, allowing a foreign judicial authority to verify the requirements imposed by the authorities Italian judicial authorities “.” When we made our request – finally, the lawyer says – in the whole national territory only 13 other similar requests had been made, and all had been denied. The Brescia TdS, therefore, represents the ‘locomotive’ of the proponents of the concrete application of this legislation “.