CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, XVII LEGISLATURE, 17th MEETING, 16 MAY 2013 – QUESTION TIME.

On 16 May 2013, the Undersecretary of State for Justice, Mr. Cosimo Maria Ferri, outlined before the Chamber of Deputies the reasons leading to the Decreto Ministeriale of 24 April 2013, which granted the extradition of a Spanish terrorist suspect to Spain. In such country, special detention conditions, which have been the object of ECHR judgments and criticisms by human rights NGOs, apply for terrorist suspects. The extradition had been previously approved by both the Court of Appeal of Rome and the Supreme Court of Cassation. In his statement, Mr. Ferri referred to the decision of the Court of Cassation as follows:

As to the question of extradition, the Court of Cassation holds that the prohibition of issuing an approval under Article 705(2)(c) of the code of criminal procedure, which the code grants in cases where there are grounds to believe that the individual extradited would be persecuted or discriminated against, or would be subjected to punishments, treatments or acts constituting ‘a violation of one or more fundamental human rights’, applies exclusively to the case of a particularly alarming situation ‘originating from a legislative choice or in any other manner from the requiring State’, regardless of independent contingencies with respect to institutional trends and where legal remedies are available.

And he added:

The Court rejects the defence’s argument according to which extradition to the Spanish Government would expose Fernàndez Arrinda to inhuman and degrading treatments, given that Spanish legislation does not envisage the institutionalization of torture or of other oppressive techniques in breach of human rights law. In addition, a possible and specific harsh treatment by police during the so-called period of incomunicaciòn cannot lead to the rejection of the request of extradition. Should such violations of human rights occur in this or another specific case, the Rule of Law in a democratic State such as the Kingdom of Spain would lead to the attribution of responsibility for the unlawful conducts of the individuals concerned.

The original version of this statement can be found at:

http://documenti.camera.it/leg17/resoconti/assemblea/html/sed0017/stenografico.pdf