Legislation and Judicial Experience in Preventing Terrorism in Italy (From International Terrorism Prevention Strategies, P 105-114, 2003, Oksanna Hatalak, ed. -- See NCJ-203260)

• NCJ Number: 203266
• Author(s): Alberto Perduca
• Date Published: 2003
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI)
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: Italy

Annotation

This paper presents a brief historical perspective on the prevention of terrorism in the European country of Italy through legislation and judicial experience.

Abstract

The terrorist phenomenon hit Italy dramatically between the end of the 1960's and the beginning of the 1980's. In this chapter, the author reviews action taken over the last three decades from both a legislative and judicial level to prevent terrorism in Italy. In responding to the terrorist phenomenon, Italy enacted provisions for the crime of “seditious conspiracy” and “armed gang.” Under “seditious conspiracy,” Article 270 of the Penal Code provides for four distinct types of illegal associations and may be applied to all those cases in which more than one person attempts to form an organized structure that is concretely able to carry out a violent plan aimed at overthrowing the democratic and pluralistic state order. Article 306 of the Penal Code addresses the crime of “armed gang.” The idea of a gang is comprised of a restricted, strongly cohesive and structured group. Article 306 applies to terrorist and subversive groups that possess enough weapons to carry out a criminal plan. Anti-terrorism legislation and judicial response are presented beginning from the 1970's through the 1990's. The first phase of the response to terrorism, when the judiciary used dated instruments to respond to a phenomenon that had acquired very new elements compared to the past, was followed by a second phase where legislative interventions were aimed at reducing as far as possible the gap between the aims and the means. Legislation was applied at two levels: stricter measures in the field of penal law and penal procedure law, and emergency legislation utilizing penal law based on premiums, such as the elaboration of norms aimed at encouraging the division and crisis of terrorist groups from within. During the 1990's, no important initiatives were taken in Italy at the normative level, and at the judicial level, the last trial dealing with the political crimes of the previous years were concluded.