Cutting wiretapping times will hurt probes says Melillo

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 20 - Cutting the time police are authorised to conduct wiretaps, as the government wants to do in a bill going through parliament, will reduce the scope and power of investigations, national anti-mafia and anti-terrorism prosecutor Giovanni Melillo told the Senate justice committee Wednesday.
    "In an era dominated by digitalization, regulating the times of wiretapping activities - which are now almost always telematic - results in an incomprehensible compression of investigative choices and an irreparable precipice of the function of ascertaining crimes", he said on the wiretapping bill recently approved in the upper house, which sets a 45-day limit on wiretapping.
    "The technical complexity is incompatible with the legislative claim to demonstrate the acquisition of specific and concrete elements every 15 days", he added.
    Naples Chief Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, the former longtime Calabrian 'Ndrangheta pointman, said on Italian TV Tuesday night that the new 45-day wiretapping limit would hobble investigators.
    He cited as an example 'Ndrangheta kidnappings which regularly went on for months. (ANSA).