New 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader and
ex-premier Giuseppe Conte on Monday said the anti-establishment
movement would back the government's justice reform after keenly
awaited talks with Premier Mario Draghi.
Conte earlier this month criticised the reform of Italy's
criminal justice system.
The reform, which aims to speed up Italy's notoriously slow
criminal trials, a demand the European Commission has made for
the arrival of EU Recovery Fund cash, was unanimously approved
by cabinet, although the M5S only backed it reluctantly due to
reservations about changes to the statute of limitations.
This is because it effectively waters down a reform passed by
Alfonso Bonafede, a M5S lawmaker who was the justice minister in
Conte's two coalition governments from June 2018 until the start
of this year.
Bonafede's reform puts the statue of limitations on hold after
the first-instance ruling in order to stop criminals getting off
because their cases get timed out due to the slowness of the
legal system.
While the new reform by current Justice Minister Marta Cartabia
does not abolish this, it sets limits for the time it can take
appeal courts and the supreme court to rule once they start
examining a case that came from a lower court - two years for
the appeals courts and one year for the supreme court.
It is possible for this to be extended by a year for appeals
courts and six months for the supreme court for especially
serious or complicated cases.
The M5S voted in favour at cabinet after it managed to get
corruption cases classed among those that it is possible to have
a longer deadline for.
But Conte, whose role as the leader chosen to revamp the M5S was
thrown into doubt by a bust-up with founder Beppe Grillo, said
on July 9 that he was not satisfied.
"I appreciate the work done by Minister Cartabia, but I wouldn't
start celebrating," Conte said.
"I'm not happy about the statute of limitations. We have gone
back to an Italian anomaly".
After his talks with Draghi Monday, however, Conte said he had
assured the contribution of the M5S on justice reform.
But he reiterated concern about the statute of limitations.
"We will give our contribution to speed up trials but we will be
very vigilant in averting thresholds of impunity".
He said there could be possible intervention in parliament to
"improve the bill".
But he concluded "let's put aside political point scoring, we
must speak to the Italians".
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