G8, ex no global Vecchi case. Hearing on 20/1 at the EU Court of Justice

New stage in the case of Vincenzo Vecchi, the former Italian no-global wanted for the facts of the G8 in Genoa in 2001 and who was arrested in France in August 2019 after an 8-year inaction and for which Italy requests extradition. In fact, a hearing is scheduled for next January 20 at the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The hearing, which should not reach a decision, will be an opportunity to hear the arguments of Vecchi’s lawyers who had been sentenced, with a sentence made final by the Italian Court of Cassation on July 13, 2012, to the penalty of 11 years and 6 months for the violence that occurred during the G8 in Genoa. The French Court of Cassation, in fact, on January 26, 2021, had decided to ask the EU Court of Justice for an opinion on three preliminary questions concerning the principle of double criminality; the methods of execution of the European arrest warrant and the possibility of dividing the crimes that could pose a problem as regards the proportionality of the sentence. The hearing at the European Court of Justice, reports the Solidarity Committee to Vecchi, “had been requested by defense lawyers and granted by the Court which thus confirms the relevance of the arguments presented “. For the Solidarity Committee with Vecchi “the question is essential: Vecchi always risks over 12 years in prison in Italy for his participation in anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa in 2021”. For the Committee “the penalty is totally unjust and absurd” and “it would be incomprehensible if it were validated in the European legal space”. On November 4, 2020, the Angers Court of Appeal did not recognize the convictions for devastation and pillage imposed by Italy on Vincenzo Vecchi but had recognized the convictions for the assault on a photographer and for the possession of dangerous objects (a Molotov cocktail). Vecchi, according to the Angers Court of Appeal, would still have had to serve a sentence of 1 year, 2 months and 23 days in prison. On November 6, the Angers Public Prosecutor had decided to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal. On November 12, 2020, Vecchi’s lawyers also filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. Old, 48, was sentenced, with a final sentence by the Italian Court of Cassation on July 13, 2012, to 11 years and 6 months for violence occurred during the G8 in Genoa. He had also reported a sentence of 4 years in prison for some clashes that took place on the occasion of an anti-fascist demonstration in Milan in March 2006. As regards the sentence for the events in Milan, it was held in France that the sentence had been already taken for granted and therefore one of the two European mandates has lapsed. Vecchi, originally from Bergamo, currently lives in Rochefort-en-Terre, Brittany, since he was released from prison, that is from 15 November 2019. Before his arrest he had worked for many years as a house painter while now he has found a job in housing construction. ecological in Questembert, also in Brittany. The case of the former no global Vecchi had already ended in France at the Supreme Court. After the November 2019 decision of the Rennes Court of Appeal which had decided the release of Vecchi, the Rennes Prosecutor appealed to the Supreme Court. On 18 December 2019 the French Court had annulled the judgment of the Rennes court which had held that the procedure against Vecchi was void as the French Prosecutor had not transmitted the name of Vecchi’s Italian lawyer to the Italian authorities and this, had established the Court, had led to a prejudice to the rights of the defense. The Angers Court of Appeal, on the other hand, expressed itself on the merits of the question, that is, on the regularity of the European arrest warrant.