19 July 2006

Open Letter to the Unione

Today I have written a letter to the leader of the Unione on the theme of the pardon.

”I am writing on an important issue that is very pressing for me as a person who voted for the Centre Left but above all as the president of Italia dei Valori, a party that is an integral part of the Government majority.

It’s about the pardon and the package that is about to be passed by Parliament. The reform, as it has been formulated allows for the insertion among the crimes even those against the public administration (corruption, crimes committed by public officials in accepting bribes or misappropriating money, abuse of office etc.), finance crimes (false accounting, tax fraud, embezzlement, rigging the market, etc.): and company crimes (bankruptcy etc.): that I maintain is inadmissible for the credibility of our coalition.

If the problem is that our prisons are too full, then I don’t understand why at all costs we have to include among those people who will benefit from the pardon, even those who have committed crimes of this type.

On the other hand, I fear, in fact I am sure, that this is the umpteenth action by the Casa della Libertà to remove the guilt from people and personalities with judicial situations that are not really clear and who are concerned precisely with this type of crime. I cannot believe that the majority wants to descend to pacts exactly on these issues that we have been criticising and fighting for five years and that we said we wanted to change.

Italia dei Valori today accepts that among the actions to be taken in relation to laws about the system of justice, it accepts that the measure in discussion, the granting of a pardon is necessary. We recognise that the prisons are too full and have reached their limits.

For this reason, for the responsibility that we have today as a player in the majority coalition and for the programme that we have signed up to with the coalition, we want to go forward. But we could never accept that one of the first actions in relation to the justice system, adopted by the Centre Left majority is that of freeing Previti when for years we have been fighting against the law about legitimate suspicion, the ex-Cirielli law, the depenalisation of false accounting and the Pecorella law.

As a person who voted for the Centre Left I could never understand such a choice.

As president of Italia dei Valori and member of the majority coalition I will never be able to accept this. And the resulting consequences are clear.
Antonio Di Pietro

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Politics