«The crime of torture will not be abolished, word of honour»- Corriere.it

“The crime of torture is a heinous crime and we have every intention of maintaining it. the government has no intention of repealing it.” She said it the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordioanswering a question at question time, explaining that there are only technical issues that need to be remodulated.

The minister explained that they are in particular there are two «technical deficiencies» of the crime of torture to deal with. The first is that while the New York Convention «limits the conduct of torture to those characterized by specific intent», i.e. implemented «to obtain a further result, in this case information, punish or discriminate», «our legislator, by opting for a criminal figure characterized by generic intent, has eliminated the distinctive fact of torture compared to other ill-treatments, making the risk of seeing the provision applied to cases of suffering caused during lawful police operations concrete”.

The second technical shortcoming, is that “the crime of the criminal figures of torture and inhuman and degrading ill-treatment, considered on an international level as distinct figures deserving of differentiated treatment, has merged into a single case”. «Subjecting the two offenses to the same disciplinary treatment is an unreasonable choice and not imposed by international constraints”. «These are technical questions but I can assure you, word of honor, that the crime of torture will remain» concluded the minister.

In recent days Brothers of Italy had presented a bill which instead aimed to abolish the crime of torture introduced in 2017. . The provision, first signed by the Melonian deputy Irma Vietri, was assigned to the justice commission of the Chamber. According to the signatories the crime risks limiting the action of the police force “than for the performance of their duties they are also authorized to legitimately resort to means of coercion physics”. “The risk of being subjected to complaints and instrumental trials – observe the deputies of FdI – could also disincentivize and demotivate the action of the police forces”