Small part of judiciary opposes govt says Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 2 - A small part of the Italian judiciary opposed the government, especially over migrant policy, Premier Giorgia Meloni said on the sidelines of COP28 Saturday in commenting on a row caused by Defence Minister Guido Crosetto's assertion that judicial opposition by left-leaning magistrates poses the only serious threat to the right-wing government.
    "I think that there is no clash between politics and the judiciary but this does not mean not pointing out that there are problems in every field, and the problem in a small part of the judiciary is believing that the measures of some governments that are not in line with a certain vision of the world should be opposed, as happened for example on immigration", she said, referring to a Catania judge, Iolanda Apostolico, who ended up at the centre of a political storm after Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini accused her of bias, posting a video showing her at a protest demonstration in Catania in 2018 against the closed-ports policy he introduced as interior minister that year and calling for the immediate disembarkation of hundreds of rescued migrants and refugees being kept onboard the Coast Guard ship Diciotti as a result.
    Apostolico, and other judges in Catania and elsewhere, have overturned detention orders for migrants issued under the terms of the so-called Cutro decree introducing detention for asylum-seekers from so-called safe countries of origin, including Tunisia, on grounds it contravened a 2013 European directive laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection. (ANSA).