The US authorities they don’t cooperate with Italy for inquiries related to defamation on the web, why there that crime does not exist. And therefore it is useless for our judicial authorities to forward requests for international letters rogatory, because they are all rejected. For this reason – the impossibility of identifying the authors of telematic threats – it was archived in Belluno the investigation which saw an offended party Assia Belhadj, 37, Italian-Algerian living in Longarone, where she works as a cultural mediator. During the electoral campaign of September 2020 she had run as a candidate with the list “The Veneto we want” (which supported Arturo Lorenzoni of the center-left coalition) and had published her own photo with veil Mussulman. Because of her clothing she had been the subject of heavy insults, which led her to file a lawsuit.
“Today I feel “foreign“In every sense, a word with which they have always labeled me and which I have always refused”, she declared, disappointed, learning that the investigating judge has accepted the archiving request presented by the Prosecutor. “More than a hundred people took the liberty of offending me, making fun of me, threaten me, mock me and my religion, call “tore up“The veil that I wear, tell me that I have to take care of myself, they have associated my person withIsis, they gave me some medieval. Yet they cannot be tried because theirs cannot be traced identity and on the date of publication of the posts “.
The truth is that the prosecutor tried to identification at least some of the keyboard lions who raged against her. But it was unable to do so because it found itself faced with an insurmountable obstacle, the differences between the Italian and US legal systems on the subject of defamation. “Like all Italian prosecutors, we too received a note from Department of Justice, Office of International Affairs, of the United States of America “explains the prosecutor of Belluno, Paolo Luca. “It was sent in 2016 to the deputy prosecutor of Rome, Angelantonio Racanelli. With a specific subject: “Requests for judicial assistance in criminal matters for the crime of defamation via Facebook profiles”. The Department clearly explained that since this type of crime is not foreseen and punished in the US, letters rogatory cannot be carried out on the data kept by the providers “.
This is the reason that prevented the prosecution against those who had offended Hesse. So he wrote Cristina Posa, US Department of Justice official: “Defamation in the United States it is not a crime, indeed the statements contained in the Facebook profiles and deemed defamatory are protected by the right of freedom of expression according to First Amendment of the Constitution. With us, freedom of expression enjoys a privileged regime and no one is prosecuted for exercising that right, no matter what it may be unpleasant, offensive e annoying the content conveyed “. Since the requests are promptly rejected, the letter urged not to “submit letters rogatory to avoid waste of resources which should be dedicated to other crimes. These are letters rogatory unusable because of our different constitutional systems “. Then there is a second level, further and also not surmountable: “Not even Facebook or other US internet operators respond to requests for the crime of defamation “.