Decision of the Court of Milan, I Criminal Section, No. 8408 of 18 July 2012

In this proceedings, eight  immigrants, subjected to administrative detention in an identification and expulsion centre (CIE) in Milan, were charged with the criminal offences of “devastation” and “damage to property caused by fire”, because they had set fire to mattresses and other objects, as a protest against restriction on their freedom to communicate with persons outside the CIE. The Court of Milan acquitted all of them from devastation, and modified the qualification of the second offense into damage to public property. After in depth analysis of living conditions within the CIE, the Court further found that general mitigating circumstances were applicable, because the accused were in a situation that was “objectively characterized by relevant restriction to [their] personal freedom, and that was perceived as such by them”.