They demonstrated against the green pass: acquitted because the fact does not exist

Udine, 2021: the prosecution had put forward the theory that the protesters called to trial were the organisers

ROME – The pandemic now seems like a distant memory, but some of its effects have continued to this day. At least for some participants in theanti Green Pass demonstrations which took place in the center of Udine between September and October 2021.Only now, in fact, have they been acquitted “because the fact does not exist”, after being dragged to court on charges of having organized the unauthorized demonstrations, because they did not give three days’ notice to the police commissioner.

FOR THE PROSECUTION THEY HAD ORGANIZED THE GALLERY

Defending some of the protesters, who overcame more than one criminal case with the same complete acquittal, were the lawyers David D’Agostini and Eleonora Iodice. In essence, the prosecution had put forward the thesis that the demonstrators called to trial were the organizers of the events which gathered around 300 people in Piazza Libertà and in the streets of central Udine on each occasion and, as such, responsible for not having notified the relevant institution of the event. The judges of the Criminal Section of the Court of Udine in two trial trials and the judge for preliminary investigations in an abbreviated trial reached the same conclusion with respect to the defendants at the demonstrations of4 and 18 September and 16 October 2021: acquitted because “the fact does not exist”.

THE MOTIVATIONS

Among the reasons that completely exonerated the demonstrators defended by the Avvocati D’Agostini firm, the fact that participation in the demonstrations occurred following information gathered from social media, which did not they in no way suggested that the necessary authorization process had not been followed. Furthermore, the fact that the participants spoke during the demonstrations does not in itself imply that they had an organizational role. Two interventions by the Constitutional Court dating back to the Seventies, in fact, “have progressively eliminated any criminal liability for anyone who simply intervened and spoke without participating in the prodromal phase of the organization”, we read in the motivation of one of the sentences of the Court of Udine. Furthermore, the judge who acquitted the defendants in February 2024 highlights that “the invitation to participate, in the future, in similar forms of protest expresses nothing regarding previous initiatives aimed at the success” of the contested demonstration. As for having formed roundabouts or holding up banners at the head of a procession, “it appears entirely compatible with the role of mere participant, as these are equally forms of manifestation of dissent”.
The sentence for the third proceeding , which arrived in April this year, reaches the same acquittal conclusion regarding the demonstrators called to trial, also maintaining that “there are no investigations from the public prosecutor’s file aimed at ascertaining who actually took part in the preparatory phases of the demonstration, publishing the post with which the participants were summoned to the meeting or by preparing the equipment necessary for its realization”. From the documents, the sentence further maintained, “only their increasingly active participation in the meeting appears; however, their possible support for the previous organizational and preparatory activity does not appear, so they cannot be equated with ‘promoters’ of the meeting “