Smeriglio, MEP elected in the Democratic Party, intervenes on the distortions of Qatargate, justice, and the rule of law.
Massimiliano Smeriglio, MEP elected in the Democratic Party, intervened in recent days asking to stop stoning his colleague Eva Kaili, because “this is not justice”. We interviewed him to tell us his version of Qatargate and how the institutions are reacting also in the treatment of suspects.
Mr Smeriglio, you were perhaps the only MEP who underlined the torture suffered by Eva Kaili in the police station and in prison, why?
“I don’t know if I’m the only one, I feel the responsibility of the moment, what happened in Brussels is serious and remains so. The image of suitcases full of banknotes is a blow to the credibility of the Community institutions. However, I don’t think it is right to dragged by the wind of justicialist conformism. We are in Europe, the rule of law is in force, if a lawyer makes such serious declarations we must give him credit, verify and if necessary, be indignant, intervene. The rule of law does not provide for revenge and torture and is measured on how the guilty are treated, not the innocent. In this case, the trial has not even begun, let alone the sentence”.
Did You Receive Support From Your Other Colleagues?
“I have received a lot of appreciation, even public. As in the case of Alessandra Moretti. They are pleasing and encouraging above all on such a difficult topic in times of simplification and social ferocity”.
Instead, Panzeri’s lawyer said that he decided to collaborate because he was vulnerable and depressed in prison, did the “gun to the temple” mentioned by the prosecutor Claise who is conducting the investigation work? Is it acceptable for a magistrate to express himself in these terms?
“Every defensive strategy is legitimate, Panzeri must have made his assessments that I don’t want to comment. A magistrate who speaks of a gun to the temple is a serious and unacceptable fact. Not European Qatari justice stuff!”
Is The Belgian Prosecution Using The Ambrosian Inquisitorial Rite?
“The first Republic came down in 1993, I don’t think Europe will fall today, not because of this investigation. I rather see too much protagonism, too many interviews, a lot of talk and at the moment an investigation that wanted to be explosive and which remains stranded by the revelations of early hours. Mind you, serious matters, to date limited to a few people and one, perhaps two MEPs. A little bit due to the attitude that some magistrates are holding”.
You said that Eva Kaili is a victim of “machismo”, what does this have to do with what she is going through?
“I said that on Eva, whom I don’t know personally, the macho vengeance was unleashed, that certain sadism that can develop in the heads of men when faced with a successful, beautiful, ambitious, shrewd woman with a smaller partner. The perfect scapegoat to make him pay something more than the jail he is already doing. The cold, the lack of assistance during the menstrual cycle, the distance from his 23-month-old daughter what are they if not hateful acts, extra penalties, to blackmail and humiliate the detained person?”
In Your Opinion, is it Right to Waive The Immunity of Cozzolino And Tarabella?
“They seem to me to be two different situations that shouldn’t be combined. Both need to be verified. In the case of Tarabella, Panzeri says he gave him 120/140 thousand euros. In the case of Cozzolino, the situation appears much more murky. In any case, we will verify the documents. The revocation of the “immunity, to date, also seems to me to be something that Cozzolino has made himself available to clarify and not leave gray areas. In any case, the debate and the forcaioli media have already carried out the sentence, making these people’s lives , to date not even indicted, impossible and scarred forever. Journalism that hunts human beings is not an investigation, it is a manhunt”.
Do we risk that Europe will be able to find the antibodies against corruption, but not in defense of human rights and the rule of law?
“Europe needs to react strongly against attempts at corruption, against interference from foreign powers that seek to influence our decisions and against large companies that sell drugs, weapons, digital systems and much more and that spend every year 1.5 billion euros for lobbing actions (legitimate actions to be regulated more strictly).Three different aspects of a single big problem, guaranteeing the autonomy, independence and sovereignty of the legislator. the urgent need to tighten the links and regulate each of these aspects more strictly.”
How did you view the fact that first the Pd and then the S&D decided to suspend Cozzolino and Tarabella from the party, even before they were to be investigated?
“The suspensions have the aim of protecting the individual who has ended up in the eye of the storm and the party he represents. In this way the picture is simplified, making the person concentrate on specific charges, without continually bringing up something else for the purpose of political controversy Having said that, I know for sure that the group of Socialists and Democrats, with the group leader Iraxte Garcia, and the Italian delegation of the Democratic Party, with the head of delegation Brando Benifei, have accompanied this step with due care and discretion towards the non-investigate ( at least until today) Andrea Cozzolino. I don’t know if the Nazzareno did the same. Maybe try asking”.
Don’t you think that the left, as it did for Tangentopoli, dumps everything on a scapegoat instead of dealing with the system?
“The theme, on the political level, is not the bad apples but the basket. On the judicial level, exactly the opposite paradigm is valid, the responsibilities are always individual and must be detailed one by one. To arrive at a fair trial and possibly a fair sentence Politics, on the other hand, should devote itself to understanding decision-making processes, their complexity, their fragility and try to intervene on these. Unfortunately, the logic of the scapegoat, of the purifying pyre to hide behind often takes the upper hand through opportunism and cowardice. instead it should have the task of defending the decision-making sphere of politics which is subject to the limits of the laws and the republican Constitution. An autonomous power independent of the judiciary.
Tangentopoli was a missed opportunity in which the judiciary has in fact assumed a power of subrogation which he never gave up. Also due to political weakness. The first Republic fell without ch and our country would find a new point of balance in the construction of democracy of intermediate bodies, parties, representation of interests, trade unions. In this way making our system highly unstable, emotional, subject to irrational flows based on communication and the relationship with the salvific leader of the moment. Berlusconi, Renzi, Salvini, Bersani, Grillo, Monti, Draghi and now Meloni. The truth is that thirty years have passed and we have no longer found the crux of a democracy based on alternative options of government and society and the centrality of the national interest capable of uniting”.
What do You Think of Nordio’s Program And The Reactions of The Left?
“Look, I’m a man of the left, of the libertarian left. And I’ve always been a guarantor. This is why I supported the referendums on justice on preventive detention, the repeal of Severino and the separation of careers. After so many years having a minister guaranteeing the In my view, justice is the only interesting novelty of the Meloni government, and if Nordio, as I believe, is a convinced guarantor, he should intervene immediately to remove the 41 bis from Alfredo Cospito before the hunger strike leads the prisoner to death. It would be an important fact and proven proof that the guarantees of just punishment concern everyone, not just the powerful.”
But do you think that these battles for a more guaranteed justice can only be sustained on an individual level, while the Pd first hindered the referendums and now the Nordio reform? Is it possible that not even in the congress phase do we discuss these issues?
“I remain a left-wing independent elected on the Democratic Party lists. I am carefully observing the congressional debate, I am convinced that a real discussion will develop on such an important issue as justice. I hope that the more guaranteed positions aligned with the various candidates can prevail. The arguments of a noble father of the Democratic Party like Bettini are precious on justice”.
Also in the case of Qatargate we have read private interceptions, do you think it would be right to intervene?
“We need to be very careful especially for crimes of association and the mafia in which wiretaps have supported investigations and investigative successes. That said, we must always remember that crimes are investigated and not people. In this sense it is clear that often, wiretapping does not , but their indiscriminate ending up in newspapers and websites has caused damage to the investigations and to the people affected by them. We should therefore agree not on the seriousness of the interceptions but on how and why they arrive from the prosecutors to the editorial offices. Herein lies the problem : the disclosure through the press of sensitive information for the purpose of investigations and private facts of the intercepted persons which have nothing to do with the investigative activity. The government must agree on this. Such a demanding discussion cannot be opened and at the same time talking about how to intercept the kids who organize raves. The two things don’t go together”.
This article is originally published on ilgiornale.it
