Amatrice sues Charlie Hebdo over earthquake cartoons

(ANSA) - Rieti, September 12 - The Amatrice town council on Monday filed a petition against Charlie Hebdo with prosecutors in Rieti for alleged aggravated defamation over the French satirical magazine's controversial cartoon showing the victims of the central Italian earthquake that killed 295 people last month as pasta dishes. Most of the victims of the quake were in Amatrice, the birthplace of the world-famous amatriciana pasta sauce. The drawing titled 'Earthquake, Italian-style' depicted bloodied victims buried under layers of pasta. "Approximately 300 dead in an earthquake in Italy," the cartoon said. "It is still unknown whether it shouted Allahu Akbar (God is Great in Arabic)".
    The cartoon prompted widespread outrage. "I respect freedom of satire and irony but I can also say I have the freedom to say that (the Charlie Hebdo quake cartoon) stinks," said Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso.
    The French embassy in Rome issued a statement distancing Paris from the cartoon.
    Amid the furore, Charlie Hebdo published a second cartoon saying "it's not Charlie Hebdo that builds Italian homes, it's the mafia".
    In its suit, the Amatrice town council said the French satirical magazine portrayed the quake victims "in such a way as to resemble stereotyped dishes of the Italian culinary tradition" while the second cartoon "attributed the blame for the devastation of central Italy to the mafia".
    A lawyer acting for the council, Mario Cicchetti, said: "This is a macabre, senseless and inconceivable vilification of the victims of a natural disaster.
    "Criticism, even in the form of satire, is an inviolable right both in Italy and France, but not everything can be 'satire' and in this case the two cartoons offend the memory of all the victims of the earthquake, the people who survived and the town of Amatrice". In the lawyer's opinion, "the crime of aggravated defamation is absolutely in play.
    He said: "one cannot in any way admit the excuse of the right of criticism in the form of satire".