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.
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