Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation has ruled that illegal immigration, under legislation dating back to 2009, cannot be considered a minor crime to avoid a conviction.
Italy's supreme Cassation court has ruled that the crime of ''illegal entry and residence in State territory'' cannot be considered as ''occasional conduct'' and therefore a minor offense to avoid a conviction.
The controversial crime of ''illegal immigration'' introduced under Silvio Berlusconi's government in 2009, which was not decriminalized two years ago, cannot lead to an acquittal citing the ''particular tenuousness of the fact''. Such a line of defense cannot be used as it is not ''occasional behavior''.
Court rules in favor of appeal by Milan prosecutors
The first criminal section of the court, in a series of identical decisions, ruled in favor of Milan's prosecutor general against some sentences by justices of peace in Como who acquitted several migrants of various nationalities who did not have a residence permit in the area of Ponte Chiasso, in Como. The crime at the center of the Cassation's ruling in Italy carries fines between 5,000 and 10,000 euros.
It was harshly criticized over the years by prosecutors in border areas who consider it expensive and an aggravation to their work with thousands of cases each year and the former president of the Cassation, Giovanni Canzio, describing it as a ''useless and harmful'' charge in a report on the 2016 judicial year when its decriminalization was under discussion.
Case originated from Como
In the cases examined by the Cassation, a justice of peace in Como had ruled in favor of a request to acquit migrants without a police record who were moving to Switzerland over the mildness of the charge. However, according to the Cassation, the judge ruled that their conduct was occasional ''without illustrating any situation de facto justifying the statement regarding the fact that the defendants were merely in transit in Italian territory towards Switzerland and not vice versa'' nor proving that ''their permanence was limited''.
Exemption from conviction in the event of a minor criminal offense can be cited if there are three conditions, the court ruled - minor damage or danger; occasional conduct and a minor degree of culpability. In the case of irregular migrants such conduct is ''far from occasional'', said the court, which sent the case back to the justice of peace.