Rome, 21 July (LaPresse) – With President Sergio Mattarella, “whose observations are always received with deferential attention”, the dialogue was calm and strictly technical. It goes without saying that the prerogative to grant a pardon lies exclusively with him. This concerned the power to initiate proceedings. The law is always a matter of debate, so much so that the highest courts often change their stance and sometimes find themselves at odds with one another. There is no offence of lese-majesty, not even in a conflict of powers, as once occurred precisely between the Quirinale and Via Arenula: the Constitutional Court is there precisely to resolve such disputes. I only regret that, as in the Minetti case, certain sections of the press have blown that conversation out of proportion.” So said the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, in an interview with *Corriere della Sera*, regarding the pardon granted to Mario Roggero, the Piedmontese jeweller sentenced to a final term of 14 years and 9 months for killing two men who had robbed his jewellery shop. Opening the preliminary inquiry is not a political gesture but “a humanitarian gesture”, he assures us.
Roggero case: Nordio says, “Granting a pardon is Mattarella’s prerogative”
Rome, 21 July (LaPresse) – With President Sergio Mattarella, “whose observations are always received with deferential attention”, the dialogue was calm and strictly technical. It goes without saying that the prerogative to grant a pardon lies exclusively with him. This concerned the power to initiate proceedings. The law is always a matter of debate, so much so that the highest courts often change their stance and sometimes find themselves at odds with one another. There is no offence of lese-majesty, not even in a conflict of powers, as once occurred precisely between the Quirinale and Via Arenula: the Constitutional Court is there precisely to resolve such disputes. I only regret that, as in the Minetti case, certain sections of the press have blown that conversation out of proportion.” So said the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, in an interview with *Corriere della Sera*, regarding the pardon granted to Mario Roggero, the Piedmontese jeweller sentenced to a final term of 14 years and 9 months for killing two men who had robbed his jewellery shop. Opening the preliminary inquiry is not a political gesture but “a humanitarian gesture”, he assures us.
