UN expert criticizes proposed Italy wiretapping law

UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression Frank La Rue on Tuesday 13 July criticized an Italian draft bill (in Italian) that would restrict the use of wiretaps and criminalize the reporting of wiretap transcripts by the news media. The proposed law covers surveillance and eavesdropping in criminal investigations, but some observers are concerned it [...]

Guantanamo update

Judge orders Yemeni freedA federal judge Wednesday 26 May ordered the Obama administration to free a Yemeni man at Guantánamo who has long claimed he was captured in Pakistan studying Koran and had no ties to al Qaeda. U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr.’s ruling of unlawful detention in the case of Mohammed Hassen, [...]

Italy: Minister revokes imam’s political asylum

Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni revoked the political asylum granted to a radical Islamist preacher after he was jailed on terrorism charges. Egyptian-born imam Abu Imad will be deported as soon has served a 44-month sentence which he began last month, Maroni said. “When this individual has finished serving his sentence, he will be expelled [...]

Italy expels 2 Moroccans on terrorism grounds

Italy has expelled under its anti-terrorism law two Moroccans on 29 April 2010 because they were suspected of plotting to assassinate Pope Benedict, an Italian Ministry source said on Friday. Mohammed Hlal, 27, studied international communications in the central  town of Perugia before being sent back to Morocco by Italian police  along with 22-year-old Errahmouni [...]

ECtHR Chamber Judgment in Trabelsi v. Italy

On 13 April, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a judgment (press release in english; judgment in French) condemning Italy for the violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 34 (right of individual petition). In a nutshell the Court held that the expulsion of an Islamic fundamentalist to [...]

Italian judge explains guilty verdict against Google

Google profited commercially from a video posted in 2006 of an Italian teenager with Down’s Syndrome being bullied in school, according to Judge Oscar Magi. His statements were contained in the explanation (pdf, italian) of the guilty verdict Magi handed down February 24 in a landmark case against three Google executives for invasion of privacy. [...]

Three Italian NGO volunteers ‘probably held illegally’ in Afghanistan

Italian medical charity Emergency said it will demand the “immediate” release of three of its workers arrested on Saturday 10 april  in connection with an alleged plot to kill a southern Afghanistan provincial governor. “We’re going to ask for the immediate release of our guys,” said the communications chief of the Italian NGO, Maso Notarianni. [...]

Privacy-related legal concerns for Google

1. Italian Courts convicts Google for privacy violations in video uploads An Italian court on 24 February found three Google executives guilty of privacy violations for allowing a video depicting bullying to be posted on its website. The court in Milan found that the three men, David Carl Drummond, George De Los Reyes, and Peter [...]

Italy ponders registration requirement to upload videos

The Italian Government intends to introduce a new decree that would require people who upload videos onto the Internet to get authorization from the Communications Ministry just like television broadcasters. Article 4 of the draft decree specifies that a ministerial authorisation is required for the dissemination over the Internet “of moving pictures, whether or not [...]

Judge: Italy’s secret service knew of CIA rendition

An Italian judge said on Monday that Italy’s secret services knew about the CIA’s kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Milan seven years ago, despite Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s denial of any Italian involvement. Judge Oscar Magi, who in November sentenced 23 Americans in absentia to up to eight years in prison for the 2003 [...]