Italian Court of Cassation (Corte di cassazione italiana), No. 41736/2021, 28 December 2021

Disqualification for a fixed period of certain administrators colluding with organised crime.

Article 374(2), Code of Civil Procedure
Article 112, Code of Civil Procedure

1. The applicant complains that the contested decree is null and void due to the absence of a valid application initiating proceedings, with the consequent infringement of the right of defence and the presumption of innocence, as well as the failure to assess the punitive nature of the proceedings, in view of the seriousness and severity of the disqualification measure, and the failure to verify and prove the alleged collusive behaviour with criminal organisations.

2. The Court of Cassation ruled that the appeal was inadmissible, as the conditions set out in article 374, paragraph 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure were not met. In fact, this is a prohibitory measure of a preventive nature, whose conditions of application are well identified and, therefore, foreseeable.
(The Court of Syracuse has declared Messrs A. M., S. S., R. B. ineligible to stand as candidates in the elections for the Chamber of Deputies, for the Senate of the Republic and the European Parliament, in the regional, provincial, municipal and constituency elections, in relation to the two rounds of elections following the dissolution of the Municipality of Pachino).