TANGLE OF ITALIAN LAW.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8550, 8 October 1907, Page 3

TANGLE OF ITALIAN LAW.

A striking example of the arbitrary methods of Italian legal procedure has been lately afforded in a case which has been dragging before the courts since 1890. About ten years ago a burglary was committed near Bordighera, and the suspicions of the police fell on a certain Giovanni Semaria, native of the neighbourhood of Coldirodi The Mayor of Coldirodi informed, "the police that nobody answering to the name belonged to the place, but that there was one Antonio Semaria who had emigrated to France. Antonio Semaria was accordingly indicted for the, crime. A trial was held in the absence of the accused and ended in his conviction. He was ■sentenced to four years' hard labour. In. 15*05 Antonio Semaria returned \.d Italy. He was immediately arrested and sent to prison to serve the sentence passed in his absence. The unfortunate man protested his iimocence and he invoked an alibi 'hich should have convinced even the most hard-hearted judge. He urnished proof that he could not ••ossibly have committed the burgJary for the simple but convincing reason that at the time he was serving a sentence for a crime of a-simi-lar nature committed in France.

He lodged an appeal against the Italian sentence, but as five years had passed since it had been pronounced the judges of appeal ruted chat according to the law of criminal procedure they were not allowed to take cognisance of new evidence bearing upon the case which had been closed, and that even if they were convinced of his innocence the sentence could not be quashed. Nor could the man hope for a royal pardon, as ho was nofa first offender, but a notorious gaol-bird. Meantime the real burglar, Gui.eppe Semaria, was arrested. He v'as tried and pleaded guilty, but invoked the statute of limitations and vas set free at once.

This anomaly impressed the Italian ? ench, and the case was sent before the high court of cassation. Very likely the law of procedure will oppose °. third hearing of the case, but even* •r" some way out of the law's intricacies is found, Antonio Semaria will i;ot regain his liberty at once, as fully l.vo years will be required for the .'fearing of the case. A reform of the law is under study, but it is not likely that Parliament vvill sanction it before at least another two years. When Antonio Solaria will be set free he will have ••erved the full term of imprisonment.