To that magistrate of Verona, who had ordered it the forced accusation in proceedings for defamation and slander against the presenter of Report Sigfrido Ranucci, the Honourable Flavio Tosi he had already had to publicly apologize once, obtaining in exchange the dismissal of the lawsuit. Five years later, the Forza Italia deputy (as well as former mayor of the city for 10 years) and the investigating judge of the Veronese Court, Livia Magri, find themselves against each other again on the justice front. With a further increase in the level of conflict: due to the tones used this time by Tosi, yes none other than the twenty professional members of the CSM are inconveniencedthe self-governing body of the Italian judiciary.
The alleged prejudices
With the formal request to open a case to protect their colleague Magri, the twenty signatories have targeted the repeated statements made by Tosi – all written in black and white, in the press releases released by the blue parliamentarian – regarding the delicate judicial investigation that is dealing with the alleged torture (accompanied by other abuses and forgery of public documents) of which some officers serving at the Verona Police Headquarters are said to have been guilty. An investigation which, in Tosi’s opinion, would be tainted by “ideological prejudices” and even “persecutory intent” (attributed precisely to investigating judge Magri) towards the policemen under investigation, servants of the State who, in the belief of the Forzista parliamentarian, deserve very different consideration. It must be said that, in his press releases, Tosi went flat. One sentence for all: «In the case of the Veronese policemen there is instead a investigating judge who, in our opinion, for an ideological vision, keeps men of the state under arrest, whose possible guilt has yet to be ascertained. In our opinion there is a clear abuse of pre-trial detention.”
All we needed was for the Review Court, in recent weeks, to revoke the suspension from service imposed to one of the officers under investigation, writing in the provision of “unsubstantiated accusations”. “The decision of the Review – Tosi was quick to comment – demonstrates that Dr. Magri decided to believe a liar, who was in a clear state of alteration and lied across the board.” For extra charge, Tosi invoked the intervention of the Minister of JusticeCarlo Nordio, to order an inspection at the Court of Verona.
Colleague’s defense
A reaction from the judiciary to such clear words could not be long in coming. In fact, in addition to the request of the professional members of the CSM to open the case to protect the investigating judge Magri, the voice of the National Association of Magistrates also immediately rose (Anm) of Veneto, who took a position in defense of his colleague, first of all recalling some facts: «The ongoing investigation began, not from the solitary reflections of a investigating judge or some magistrates, but from the investigations of the same police forces; in other words, it was the same members of the police force (carabinieri and the Verona flying squad) who investigated facts and circumstances concerning some members of the state police. Based on the results of the investigations carried out by the police forces themselves – underlines the ANM -, the Verona Prosecutor’s Office decided to initiate proceedings criminal law and requested and obtained interdictory suspension measures for many of the suspects.” Therefore, “the idea that some magistrates are persecuting servants of the State is contradicted and denied by the simple observation that the policemen under investigation are under criminal investigation following the investigations of the police forces themselves, and therefore of other servants of the State”. But Tosi doesn’t back down: «Other magistrates from others offices are dismantling the accusations made against the policemen one by one by investigating judge Magri, on the basis of the same factual elements. What happened in Verona is incredible.”
