League Senator Roberto Calderoli's
18-month suspended sentence for calling Congo-born integration
minister Cecile Kyenge an orangutan in 2013 was quashed by the
supreme Court of Cassation on Monday.
For,er two-time minister Calderoli, 66, was cleared because
lower courts were found to have ignored his legitimate
impediment to attending proceedings because of health reasons,
namely a cancer operation.
The supreme court also ruled that Senate Vice President
Calderoli's alleged offence has not quite timed out.
Kyenge, a 57-year-old ophthalmologist and former member of the
European Parliament, became Italy's first black minister when
she was appointed integration minister in Enrico Letta's
government of 2013-2014, when she was a frequent target of
racial slurs, many by League members.
League bigwig Calderoli said "when I think of Kyenge, I can't
help thinking of an orangutan".
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