The work in the Chamber on the Security Bill continues in fits and starts. The protagonist of one of the most discussed amendments is the member of the Northern League, Igor Iezzi, who has just returned after the 15-day suspension he received for the attack on the grillino Leonardo Donno in the Chamber. The joint committees Constitutional Affairs and Justice have rejected all the changes proposed by the opposition on article 12 of the provision, that is, the one that removes the obligation to postpone the sentence for pregnant women or those with children under one year old. The Security Bill, as it has reached the committees, gives the authorities the power to imprison women even if they are pregnant to term or are mothers of children under one year old. An advantage that in Italy is recognized by article 146 of the Penal Code on the mandatory postponement of the execution of the sentence.
The automatic postponement of the criminal execution in prison – which, with this proposal, would become optional – has entered the recent public debate on the issue of pickpockets. And the amendment, signed by Iezzi and Simona Bordonali, approved today – July 9 – during the examination of the draft law on security must be seen in this sense. The members of the Northern League wanted to introduce an aggravating circumstance if the crime is committed “inside or in the immediate vicinity of railway stations and metro stations or inside convoys used for the transport of passengers”. In the majority, regarding article 12 on pregnant prisoners or mothers of minors under one year old, the defection of Forza Italia was recorded. The Azzurri decided not to participate in the vote on the amendments contrary to the draft of the Northern League, rather than rejecting them as the Brothers of Italy and the League itself did.
Forza Italia stands out
Furthermore, Forza Italia has already announced that, when the bill reaches the Chamber, it will present an amendment aimed at maintaining the obligation to suspend the execution of criminal sentences. No backing down on the part of the other centre-right partners. The deputy leader of the Fratelli d'Italia group in the Chamber, as well as rapporteur of the measure, said in a note: “To those who, in these hours, oppose the cessation of the automatic postponement of sentences, citing the protection of children as the motivation, we remind you that among the primary rights of minors, that of not being used instrumentally to commit crimes or to suspend the execution of sentences. By balancing the interests of those who cannot express themselves, there will finally be a judge and not a mandatory mechanism. In the case of serious or repeated crimes that do not allow for preventive suspension, the judge will assess the situation of the prisoner and her offspring.”
Avs: “The repressive drift of the right condemns children to prison”
The League, however, stressed in a statement that the introduction of the new aggravating circumstance – if the crime is committed on trains and in stations – is “a common sense action in a context of high vulnerability and high concentration of people”. Keep it up, for a safe country where every citizen can live and travel in peace.” Among the opposition, the first reaction came from the Green Alliance and the left: “The repressive drift of the right led by the League is increasingly dangerous. The monster bill sentences children to prison and invents absurd aggravating circumstances if the crimes are committed on the subway. Where has the pride of the guarantee gone? Are you acting only to defend your friends who are under investigation?” wrote the leaders of the Avs group of the Justice and Constitutional Affairs committees of the Chamber, Devis Dori and Filiberto Zaratti.
Carfagna: “Prison for pregnant women or mothers of newborns is an unnecessary cruelty”
Even the president of Azione, Mara Carfagna, opposed the majority's project: “It is surprising that a government that exalts motherhood and guarantees promotes a law that will allow the judiciary to keep pregnant women, even in the ninth month, or mothers in prison. of children under one year old. While defying the risk that these women will give birth behind bars and their babies will be denied immediate neonatal care. In any case, children are not to blame, thinking that they can grow up in prison simply because their mother committed a crime is an unnecessary cruelty. If they really want to eradicate pickpocketing and theft, they should go after their leaders, who are certainly not pregnant women or their newborns. There are cases, even recent ones, of very young pregnant women forced to steal and beaten if they do not. “Arresting them, and not their executioners, is evidence of the weakness, not the strength, of the state.”
The issues that remain to be resolved: the fight against hemp and chemical castration
However, around lunchtime, the members of the committees suspended their work, which will resume tomorrow – July 10 – at 2:30 p.m. Some of the most controversial issues remain to be resolved. There is the government amendment that equates industrial hemp with drugs, but there is also the League's proposal on chemical castration for certain crimes of sexual violence that must be discussed. A passage on which Matteo Salvini himself insisted today on social networks: “A pedophile, a serial rapist must not only be put in prison but also treated, because he is sick. There is an amendment from us to the Security bill reserved for them: it is a pill to block the urges of the sick.” Regarding hemp, the professional association Cia-Italian Farmers denounced “yet another measure that humiliates farmers who, in recent years, have invested money and work in the industrial hemp supply chain. We are faced with ideological interventions that risk paralyzing a supply chain with high added value and attracted by young people, with enormous production potential in the fields of cosmetics, herbal medicine, ecological construction, horticulture and textiles.
Read also:
