A Rome court has sentenced 24 people for publishing comments deemed as "hate speech" against migrants, Jews and public figures between 2011 and 2012 on the Italian section of the far-right forum "Stormfront". Sentences range between one year in prison and three years and 10 months.
A Rome court on Monday sentenced 24 people for publishing comments deemed as "hate speech" against migrants, Jews and public figures on the Italian section of "Stormfront," an internet forum where people promote white nationalism and antisemitism, among other things.
Sentences ranged between one year in prison and three years and 10 months for charges that include the spreading of ideas based on racial and ethnic hatred, defamation, threats and violation of a law known as the 'Mancino Law'. The crimes were committed in 2011 and 2012.
Plaintiffs included the writer Roberto Saviano and former Lampedusa mayor Giusi Nicolini as well as the Union of Jewish Communities and the Jewish Community of Rome.
Targeted for migrant reception
Former mayor Nicolini was targeted for her policies on migrant reception. Some of the defendants had posted threats against Nicolini after an interview appeared online with her in which she said she would rather have migrants on Lampedusa than dead at sea.
"She deserves to have her home robbed and then set on fire, and to be raped by a horde of subhumans that she loves so much,'' one had written. Nicolini responded on Twitter by saying "Another trench erected against racism, antisemitism, hatred and violence on the web."
'Pleased with the sentence'
Italian writer Saviano was called as a witness during the trial. "They called me the 'Jew Saviano'," the author of the well-known book Gomorra said, "as if the word 'Jew' was a slanderous brandname."
Saviano also said the accused commented in a "defamatory and manipulative way" on what he had written in some articles, including one in the New York Times that "underscored the courage of African migrants who had been attacked by gangmasters ... and the silence of Italians."
"We are very pleased, since it is true that battles are not won only by repression," former mayor Nicolini said about the sentence. "It is important that these people understand that they must be held accountable,'' she said while leaving the court premises after the rendition.