First, Italy’s activist judges blocked efforts to deport illegal migrants to the Albania detention center. Now, the Meloni government also has to contend with activist lawyers claiming “all detentions are illegitimate” after a court ruling that most definitely did not say that.
The Italian Constitutional Court’s review of a law governing the administrative detention of migrants in removal centers (CPRs—Centri di Permanenza per i Rimpatri) found that such detention implies a “physical subjection to the power of others” which affects personal freedom, and must therefore be governed by clear legal safeguards under Article 13 of the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Court highlighted that the law lacks clear rules about how detention should be carried out, what rights detainees have—like access to a lawyer—and who oversees these procedures, and stated that without these safeguards, the law doesn’t meet constitutional standards protecting personal liberty.
Despite these issues, the Court decided not to strike down the law, saying it’s up to Parliament to address these gaps. Though legal remedies exist after detention begins, the Court emphasized that protections must be established from the very start.
While the ruling sends a clear message that lawmakers need to create stronger legal safeguards to ensure detainees’ rights are properly protected, it did not say—as activist lawyers Eugenio Losco and Mauro Straini claim—that “all holdings in CPR currently ongoing are illegitimate”.
So, who are the lawyers who trumpeted their—erroneous—interpretation of the Constitutional Court ruling and immediately filed a request for a client to be released from the Ponte Galeria CPR??
Eugenio Losco and Mauro Straini are well-known in Italy as frontline fighters for the militant Left. Among other things, they represented eleven anarchists charged with aggravated resistance, damage, and misrepresentation in connection with a demonstration supporting Italian anarchist and militant Alfredo Cospito. Cospito is serving a combined sentence of 23+ years for a 2006 bombing at a police academy and the 2012 shooting of a nuclear company CEO.
The duo also played central roles as the legal team of Italian ‘Hammer Girl’ Ilaria Salis, whose immunity as an MEP has allowed her to evade being tried for attempted assault in Hungary. Salis faces three attempted assault charges for brutally attacking innocent passersby in Budapest with a group of far-left “anti-fascist” extremists, targeting them solely for “looking like” neo-Nazis. Prosecutors sought an 11-year sentence, but had to release her after she was elected as an MEP with the Italian Greens, who turned her into a political martyr for their campaign. Brussels leftists have since managed to postpone a decision on Hungary’s request to lift her immunity—several times.
At the time of writing, there was no comment from the Meloni government. However, she has frequently criticized the judiciary for blocking their immigration strategies—especially measures related to deportations and the use of offshore processing centers in Albania.
