CSM magistrates request protection for Bologna judges

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 4 - The overwhelming majority of the magistrate members of the Italian judiciary's self-governing body, the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), on Monday voted to request to open a special procedure to protect the independence and autonomy of Bologna judges who are under heavy fire for referring a government measure on migrants to the European Court of Justice.
    The Bologna judges referred a measure defining a list of safe countries for repatriation to the EU court to ask whether the principle of the primacy of EU law should prevail if a conflict arises with Italian legislation in relation to an appeal presented by an asylum seeker from Bangladesh.
    The government measure listing 19 countries, including Bangladesh, as safe, said Italian courts cannot rule against it on the basis of an October 4 European Court of Justice sentence, which was the basis of Rome judges' decision to nix the detention of a group of migrants at a new Italian-run centre in Albania last month.
    The move that sparked accusations, including from members of Premier Giorgia Meloni's government, that the judiciary was encroaching the political realm.
    The request for protection was backed by all but three of the 20 magistrates on the CSM, two-thirds of which come from the judiciary itself, with the other third nominated by parliament.
    The three not in favour were among the seven members of the conservative Magistratura Indipendente group.
    The request said the Bologna court's decision had been "the subject of highly polemical statements by holders of high institutional offices" and this resulted in a situation of "unacceptable pressure on judges" that would be "objectively conditioning for those who in the future have to deal with the same issues.
    "Therefore, it undermines the independence of the entire judiciary," it said.
    A similar request for protection for the Rome judges who ruled against holding the migrants at the Albanian centre was also approved by a majority the CSM magistrates but without the support of Magistratura Indipendente. (ANSA).