Italy: Unlawful SISMI surveillance of judges and NGOs
01 July 2007
On 4 July 2007, the
Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura (CSM, Superior Council of the Judiciary) passed a resolution criticising the surveillance of judges and magistrates from associations such as
Magistratura Democratica (MD) and the European Network of Democtratic Lawyers (MEDEL), that surfaced in papers confiscated from a
SISMI (military intelligence service) office in via Nazionale, Rome. The documents, seized after a search in connection with the Abu Omar rendition investigation in July 2006, led to judicial proceedings for violating privacy and carrying out activities that did not fall within
SISMI's remit. Nicolò Pollari, the former head of
SISMI, and Pio Pompa, another
SISMI officer, have been named in relation to the proceedings. The CSM resolution highlights that
SISMI itself, rather than "deviant" sectors of the service, conducted the surveillance activities which were intended to intimidate and discredit specific magistrates, condition their judicial activity and prevent their appointment to supranational bodies.
Extracts from documents published in
Repubblica newspaper on 5 July, including handwritten notes from Pompa to Pollari, revealed a plan to "sanitise" public institutions and the political arena. The intention was to establish a "relationship of trust" with the presidency and to "constitute a mechanism [comprising] trusted people" limited to very few individuals of "airtight reliability". The goals of the surveillance strategy included the neutralisation of "the political enemy" and "monitoring of MEDEL" and initiatives by "non-profit bodies and associations" with whom the network has a relationship. This included the European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) participants
Progetto Melting Pot and the
Associazione di Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione (ASGI, Association of Legal Studies on Immigration), and
Gruppo Abele,
ARCI,
Associazione di promozione sociale,
Centro di iniziativa per l'Europa del piemonte,
Agenzia testimoni di Genova and Carta.
"Neutralising...carriers of destabilising notions"
The CSM started proceedings on 7 November 2006 to "protect the magistrates" identified in press reports as having been subjected to surveillance by members of the military secret service. The Milan prosecutors' office handed over documentation on 18 December about investigations into the Abu Omar rendition that motivated the search and seizure of SISMI papers dealing with magistrates and magistrates' associations, and the notification of the opening of judicial proceedings against Pollari and Pompa. The "most significant" documents included notes from spring-summer 2001 detailing a plan for observation and intervention activities targeting sectors of the magistrature deemed to be "carriers of destabilising notions and strategies...and close to the past governing majority". The purpose of these operations was "to neutralise political-judicial initiatives directly concerning representatives of the current governing majority and/or their families", creating a team to evaluate and diagnose any "aggressive initiative and study measures to neutralise or deter it", undertaking "dissuasive activities through the adoption of adequate counter measures, in Italy and Europe".
A report on appointments to the OLAF European anti-fraud judicial body stressed the need to replace erstwhile candidates with alternatives who were closer ideologically to the governing majority. This would avert the infiltration of "potentially dangerous" elements prepared to foster initiatives against specific members of the Italian executive into European institutions. Lists of magistrates and personal files concerning them, described as "sensitive areas" to be subjected to observation, were included. The membership of MD was well represented and biographical files were kept on Armando Spataro, Stefano Dambruoso and Claudio G