The investigating judge of Milan Tiziana Landoni recently filed the provision with which she did not validate the detention of Youssef Siher and released him, not agreeing with the request made by the Prosecutor's Office which had proposed precautionary custody in prison. The 30-year-old researcher was arrested on Saturday night as administrator of the 'October 17 Movement' telegram channel opened after the two days of riots in Milan. Against him, and against his wife who is under investigation at large, the prosecutors hypothesized the crimes of incitement to commit a crime with the aggravating circumstances of terrorism and organized violence in a street demonstration. The judge evidently accepted the thesis of the defence, with lawyers Benedetto Ciccarone and Yasmina Abu Sharar, who had fully contested the reconstruction of the public prosecutors and the existence of the precautionary requirements.
With the contents published on the Telegram chat "October 17 Movement" Youssef Siher expressed "modes of protest" against the "current government policies", as well as "evoking actions of 'civil disobedience'", but which do not "translate into the adoption of violent or more generally criminal behavior, but rather into the mere planning of weekly demonstrations, capable of raising awareness and involving as many people as possible". This was written by the investigating judge of Milan Tiziana Landoni, who ordered the release of the 30-year-old researcher by not recognizing the "serious indications of guilt" in the crimes accused of him.
"A shameful decision." Thus the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni comments on the decision of the investigating judge of Milan in a video on social media. "I think - he adds - that this is an unbearable mortification of the work of the police, of the investigators, of the Ministry of the Interior and in general of all those who work to defend respectable people from the risk of seeing their cities and their businesses devastated". "I really don't know how a normal state can defend respectable people in the face of these decisions of a certain judiciary." "I will say it bluntly - he adds -: I consider the decision of the Milan investigating judge to not validate the arrest of Youssef Siher, accused of being the manager of the 'October 17 Movement' Telegram page, i.e. the page that incited the organization of those demonstrations which we later saw lead to the devastation of several businesses in Milan, to be shameful".
In the 37 pages of the provision, the judge, essentially accepting the line of the lawyers Ciccarone and Abu Sharar, explains that "the investigative elements collected up to now" do not allow us to recognize "at present, and without prejudice to subsequent in-depth investigations, serious indications of guilt against Siher". In particular, with regard to the contested crimes of incitement to commit crimes aggravated by the purpose of terrorism, in relation to those social channels on Telegram and Instagram, the judge, citing extensive jurisprudence and also rulings of the Constitutional Court, clarifies that, for incitement to take place, the "manifestations of thought" must integrate "behavior concretely suitable for provoking the commission of the crimes". Otherwise, if this is not the case, the "free expression of one's opinions" would be restricted in conflict with the Constitution. For the investigating judge, the contents posted by the 30-year-old, which ended up in the crosshairs of the investigation, are certainly "critical statements aimed at the State, the current Government and the media, characterized by harsh tones and vulgar expressions" and with a "firm stance in the face of policies that are not shared and considered harmful to the future of Italy". This, we read, "results in a generic 'declaration of war' on an 'infamous present'", but not "against the institutions of the State" and is not "accompanied by specific and concrete references to violent actions or in any other way constituting a crime, such as to induce users to commit such acts". With that message on the "war" in the "present", explains the judge, and from the contents of the chat, Siher's "firm desire" to "initiate a stable form of protest in the face of socio-economic problems which, according to his thinking, do not find an answer in current government policies" emerges.
