Sentence of the Italian Ministry of the Interior
THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC I n the name of the ltalian people THE CIVIL TRIBUNAL OF ROME Section I The sole judge : DR. DURANTE Maurizio Has pronounced the following SENTENCE In the civil case in the first degree registered with number 38334 of the generai roti for contentious affairs for the year 1998 put to deliberation at the hearing of the 11/2/2000 in the contention between Meneghetti Antonio Whose elected domicile is in Rome Viale Orbitelli, 31 C/O the studio of the District Attomey Vincenzo Zeno- Zancovich who represents him and defends him by proxy set out on the edge of the citation act. ACTOR MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR, in the person of the Minister pro tempore (Interim). The first page bears the TRIBUNAL OF ROME with sentence registration number 22921 rubber stamped and hand written. There is a further number 28873 with the word repertory. A rubber stamp with the writing" Admitted to the debit booking for the sole registration of sentence. D.P.R. 26/4/19986 n° 131 article 591etter D l. A rubber stamp of the copies office of the Tribunal of Rome Applicant. Revelli Studio Use 1 Rights 3000 ( presumably Italian Lira) Dated Rome the 27/ 09/ 2000 Whose elected domicile is in Rome Via, dei Portoghesi, 12 C/O The State Generai Advocacy that represents him and defends him by law. CONVENED OBJECT: Payment of damages for defamation CONCLUSIONS At the precision hearing of the 11/212000 the attomeys for the parts concluded as for the acts. EXCUTION OF THE PROCEDURE With an act of citation ritually notified Antonio Meneghetti convened the Ministry for Internai Affairs ( Home Office) to judgement before this Tribunal requesting upon previous incidental ascertainment of the offence of defamation through the media (press) that it should declare that the publication is cause for lesion to the honour, the reputation and the personal identity, as well as , in generai to the rights of the personalities of the Actor and of the dispositions pursuant law n° 675/ 1996 and, to that effect, to condemn the Ministry appearing today, also in pursuance of article 29 last comma, of the law n° 675/ 1996 to the payment of damages suffered and to be suffered in the measure resulting in cause or in justice and further more, to the payment of a pecuniary reparation ex article 12 of the law 8/211~48 n° 47 in the measure of ltalian Lira 200,000,000 with victory over costs. It deduced that in the report of February 1998 by the Ministry, granted the initiatives of the Actor in the subject of Ontopsychology and his acadernic titles as well as the awards conferred onto him, Prof. Meneghetti recalled his judicial vicissitudes; That the report of February by the Ministry of Internai Affairs (Home Office) , qualified by publication in the citation act , dedicated an enti re chapter to psycho sects amongst which the "Ontopsychological Association was included, that is, the Ontopsychologicallnstitute. That in respect of such Association, which was his Association, and in respect of his person, the ~contained"a concentration offalse and defamatory statements" 1) Prof: Meneghetti was defined as a multi-convicted person, while he had only been convicted twice for minor offences; 2) Meneghetti's academic titled (Professor) had been vilified to the level of nickname; 3) Professor's Meneghetti's science was defined as a sort of psychotherapy; 4) Such psychotherapy was not recognised by official science, while on the subject, there was no official science; 5) The fundamentals of Ontopsychology had been overturned; 6) "Signals" had been employed to strengthen the idea of an illicit association; In any case, the publication of the de quo constituted an illicit fact for the obviol.Js violation of law n° 675/1996- in as much as it broadcast inaccurate data, whereby , there was also responsibility in pursuance of article 18 and payment is due in pursuance of article 29. The Ministry, convened and constituted in judgement, contended the request of the Actor deducing that the "report" de quo was not, as erroneously assumed by the Actor " an official publication" by the Ministry of Internai Affairs (Home Office) but a study document elaborated for institutional reasons by the Prevention Police and edited Il for exclusive office use only" that in particular, it represented the compendium of monitoring the activities of "religious sects and new magical movements" carried out in order to adhere to a specific information request advanced by the Government; that was replicated in a limited number of copies, it had not been destined for the public at large, but far the use of the offices of competence; that therefore, it could not be sustained that its mere writing could integrate a defamatory conduct. That in any case the report did not contain "inexact, incomplete or obsolete" data, but summarised a series of objective and documented facts. It asked therefore, the rejection of the request by the actor. The case then passed to the decision on the conclusions that are transcribed epigraphically. MOTIVATION FORTHE DECISION As for the preliminary exception raised by the Ministry that the case report publication was destined exclusively for internai use, this exception is gainsaid by the circumstance that such report was reported and broadcast by the press Agency ANSA, therefore with large diffusion at a public leve I and also reported on some large circulation national dailies, as documented by the Actor, As far the contents of the report it is substantially not contrasted that the news therein contained both on the person of the Actor and his organisation are totally irrelevant, uninfluent , incorrect and false also from the putative truth point of view. In rea lity , they are in this case based on the incorrect references of two "previous convictions" of the Actor totally irrelevant from the point of view of the personality of the Actor himself and on negative denigratory valuations of the scientific nature of the psychotherapeutic program organised by the Actor. Valuations that, besides not having obvious scientific value are also gainsaid by documentation coming from official organisations whose seriousness cannot be doubted. Therefore the contents and diffusion of the report called into question is undoubtedly dressed in defamatory character of the person of the Actor. The request must therefore be sustained with the condemnation for the Ministry convened to payment of moral damages; Damages of patrimonial nature not being apparent we liquidate this at 50,000,000 Italian Lira. The costs follow the victory and are liquidated according to procedure, . .M. (Far these reasons) Definitely sentencing upon request by Meneghetti Antonio versus the Ministry of Internai Affairs, it is thus provided: Condemn the Ministry convened to payment of the sum of Italian lira 50,000,000 in favour of the Actor with legai interests appertaining to the case, as well as reimbursement of expenses far the case of Italian Lira 9,000,000 of which 3,000,000 far the rights and 5,000,000 far the honoraria, beside V.A.T. and CPA according to the law. So it is decided in Rome, on the 16th of June 2000. The document bears the round rubber stamps of the Chancery Office of the Tribunal, and of the Tribunal itself, the rubber stamp of Chancellor together with his signature which is difficult to read but I think it be Egisto De Lollo. Another stamp of the Chancery dated 14th of July 2000 signed P.P. Egisto De Lullo A rubber stamp of the Tribunal Of Rome attesting that this is a Civic Sample and that the registration must be done on debit. A rubber stamp bearing the number of registration 4457 dated 13/9/00. the number is also written in letters, and a signature by Dr. M. Raccichini. At the edge of the page there is a portioned stamp where against the code 109T there is an amount of 1,500,000 lira entered and against the code 456T an amount for 40,000 lira adding up to a Total of 1,540,000 At the edges of each of the pages there are rubber stamps of the Tribunal of Rome.