Contrada Case – Il Tempo

Italy has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for its alleged abuse of Bruno Contrada’s wiretaps. Beyond the specific case, the ruling identified a “systematic flaw in Italian law on wiretapping”. The news was delivered by lawyer Stefano Giordano: “Thank you to the whole company and the late Marina Silvia Mori for this important decision,” says the lawyer. The “Contrada v. Italia” case ruled that the interception of telephone conversations and the search of his home and other property were legal, all actions ordered as part of a criminal proceeding not directly related to the former super cop.

But what does Strasbourg’s First Division judgment say? “The European Court of Human Rights (…) unanimously held that Article 8 (right to respect for privacy, private life and correspondence) of the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated by the transcription of the appellant’s telephone communications”, reads Giordano’s note. “It appears that Italian law does not provide adequate and effective guarantees against abuses against individuals who are subjected to preventive measures, but are not parties to the proceedings as they are not suspected or accused of having committed a crime. In particular, the judicial power to effectively limit the legal and procedural need for those persons and to obtain adequate compensation depending on the case cannot be resorted to”.

The lawyer concludes. He reformulates the whole subject of eavesdropping in the liberal sense”.

In short, a system that allows “wild eavesdropping” is incompatible with human rights. During a debate on ‘How to reconcile economy and justice’ at the Trento Economic Festival, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said the ECHR ruling in the Contrada case “was music to my ears, it gave me great joy. The ECHR says very clearly that today Italy has violated all human and civil rights, I wonder now what effect this will have on the ongoing proceedings and how the rights enshrined in Article 15 of the Constitution on confidentiality of communications will end up being eroded.” “The objection made – added the representative of the government of Georgia Meloni – we give a gift to the mafia. The fight against the mafia, organized crime, terrorism and serious crimes” wiretaps “are not only indispensable. , but sometimes the mafia does not talk on the phone, it goes beyond Trojans and bugs, but A system that the government wants to change. We proposed a minimum wage, that is, the protection of third parties: if we talk about Sempronio, at least Sempronio’s name should not appear. It has been used, abused, and included people who are not there. Nothing,” observed the minister.