Case against 65 Extinction Rebellion activists shelved

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 25 - A Turin court on Friday upheld a request from prosecutors for the case to be dismissed against 65 Extinction Rebellion activists who in April occupied the hall of the Intesa San Paolo skyscraper in the city, the venue for the G7 climate, environment and energy meeting.
    The prosecutors said that, given the need to find a balance between public order and the Constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful protect, "no criminal law has been broken", stressing that there was no damage done to property.
    The group, which stages protests to highlight the need to address the climate crisis, welcomed the decision.
    But it also said the right protest was threatened by recent legislation stiffening penalties for acts of civil disobedience and the measures contained in the government's security law currently being examined in parliament.
    "It is not the first time that the Italian prosecutors seek, and obtain, the dismissal of cases against movements such as Extinction Rebellion," the group said in a statement.
    "However, these complaints remain in the police databases and they are used to justify social-danger judgments that are the basis of restrictive measures such as expulsion orders.
    "There is a tendency to criminalize and restrict the spaces of democratic usability which has been highlighted several times by authoritative commentators, both Italian and international ones, as seen with the new security bill, which has been discussed in the Senate in recent weeks". (ANSA).