Decision of the Court of Milan, Office of the Judge for preliminary investigations, No. 3531/94 of 17 January 2012

The judge for preliminary investigations at the Court of Milan dismissed the proceeding against two persons charged with the offenses of arson, intentional murder, and kidnapping, who had been prosecuted and convicted in Germany for the same facts. The decision was founded on the “ne bis in idem” principle set forth in Italian criminal law and enshrined, without derogation, in the applicable international and European instruments. Among these are Article 4 of the Protocol No. 7 to the ECHR and Article 50 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. The latter is directly applicable in the domestic legal orders of member States, as an effect of the Lisbon Treaty.