Decision of the Court of Cassation, III Criminal Section, No. 36906 of 23 June 2015

The decision concerns the spread of an election leaflet in which criminal or objectionable conducts were attributed to all non-EU citizens, and people of Jewish religion. Although constituting an expression of inacceptable prejudice against the foreigners and a religious group, such conduct did not fall, in the opinion of the Court of Cassation within the concept of ‘incitement to acts of racial hatred’ as this offense results from law No. 654/1975 (through which Parliament authorized the ratification and implementation of the UN Convention on the elimination of racial discrimination) and subsequent modifications. These conclusions were reached by the Court through in-depth examination of the relevant concepts, their legal definition and the relationship with the protection of freedom of expression, taking into account developments in the jurisprudence of the Italian courts and the European Court of Human Rights.