The case of Judge Luigi Tosti

Public attention disrupts courts in their attempt to break the law: Judge Luigi Tosti has finally been acquitted at the Court of Cassation in Rome!

21st February, 2009

Admittedly, it is only a third-class acquittal, and that after more than 3 years and an exhausting fight through all the instances; but then after all, Judge Luigi Tosti, who in November 2005 had been sentenced to 7 months' imprisonment and a year's suspension from all public offices, because he refused to hold his court proceedings under the crucifix, – i.e. in accordance with a decree passed by Mussolini (to whom we have to thank the risen-again Vatican State), which has long since been declared invalid (!), – was now at least acquitted in the third and final instance on February 17th, 2009. The reasons given were evasive: since his proceedings had been held by other judges in his place, no real damage had been done to the public jurisdiction and therefore Judge Tosti should be acquitted of the charge of ‘interrupting public service’ and ‘failure to perform official functions’.  The obscenity at the heart of this trial – a decree passed by Mussolini for the benefit of his clerical supporters and wirepuller – was not mentioned on one single occasion: so where was our stateordered ‘anti-fascism’, otherwise propagated by Hitler's surviving civil servants and their pupils and successors ad nauseam, here then?  They could have, and should have, acquitted Tosti with this merely formal, defensive justification in the first instance in 2005, already.  So the excuse becomes evident: only the incessant international pressure from the public, organised almost solely by the Alliance against Conformity, in the form of protest letters and signatures, which came completely unexpectedly to the Italian judiciary, forced the Court of Cassation to grudgingly cancel the former sentence now.  However, it still managed to thoroughly avoid Tosti's anti-Mussolini demand for the removal of the crucifixes from the courtrooms. Now the disciplinary hearing on Tosti's reinstatement as a judge by the magistrate, the Senior Judicial Council, is still outstanding, but these matters routinely follow the outcome of a criminal trial that takes place at the same time.  But let us be alert onetheless! Judge Tosti himself said that his fight would continue. ‘Either me or the crucifixes in the courtrooms.’

Judge Tosti's partial success shows: resistance can pay.  But it must grow.

07.10.2008 A call for solidarity with Luigi Tosti  read more >