Ex-premier Giuseppe Conte on Friday criticised a reform of Italy's criminal justice system approved by Premier Mario Draghi's cabinet on Thursday.
The reform, which aims to speed up Italy's notoriously slow criminal trials, a demand the European Commission has made for the arrival of EU Recovery Fund cash, was unanimously approved by cabinet, although the 5-Star Movement (M5S) only backed it reluctantly due to reservations about changes to the statute of limitations.
This is because it effectively waters down a reform passed by Alfonso Bonafede, a M5S lawmaker who was the justice minister in Conte's two coalition governments from June 2018 until the start of this year.
Bonafede's reform puts the statue of limitations on hold after the first-instance ruling in order to stop criminals getting off because their cases get timed out due to the slowness of the legal system.
While the new reform by current Justice Minister Marta Cartabia does not abolish this, it sets limits for the time it can take appeal courts and the supreme court to rule once they start examining a case that came from a lower court - two years for the appeals courts and one year for the supreme court.
It is possible for this to be extended by a year for appeals courts and six months for the supreme court for especially serious or complicated cases.
The M5S voted in favour at cabinet after it managed to get corruption cases classed among those that it is possible to have a longer deadline for.
But Conte, whose role as the leader chosen to revamp the M5S has been thrown into doubt by a bust-up with founder Beppe Grillo, said Friday that he was not satisfied.
"I appreciate the work done by Minister Cartabia, but I wouldn't stat celebrating," Conte said at a conference of the young entrepreneurs branch of industry association Confindustria.
"I'm not happy about the statute of limitations. We have gone back to an Italian anomaly".
Conte said he was not taking aim at Draghi, arguing he was just making political points and parliament would have the final word.
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