Albania migrant judge reports receiving death threats

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 24 - One of the judges who did not validate the detention of the first group of migrants taken to a processing facility Italy has just opened in Albania on Thursday reported to the State attorney's office in Rome that she has received death threats. Silvia Albano is one of the six judges in the immigration unit of Rome's tribunal who nixed the detention of the 12 migrants stating their countries of provenance - Bangladesh and Egypt - could not be considered safe based on an October 4 ruling of the European Court of Justice.
    Albano is the president of the judiciary's left-wing faction Magistratura Democratica (Democratic Magistrature, MD). "The campaign of disrepute that was unleashed against Roman magistrates and in particular against Silvia Albano has contributed to build a climate of contrast, of hatred which finally led to grave threats to her safety and her life", MD stressed in a note issued on Thursday. MD also mentioned in the statement the fact that three prosecutors in Palermo who received threats after requesting a six-year jail term for Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini on abduction charges in relation to the Open Arms case have also been recently assigned a security detail, denouncing a climate of "intimidation" against magistrates. The ruling of the Rome court on Friday, which led to the migrants being taken back to Italy from the newly opened centre, was slammed by government members including Justice Minister Carlo Nordio which described it as "abnormal". After the ruling, the government on Monday approved a new decree listing 19 countries, including Egypt and Bangladesh, as safe, saying courts cannot rule against it on the basis of the October 4 European Court of Justice on which Friday's decision was based. (ANSA).