La Corte Costituzionale nel processo Regeni: l'efficacia espansiva di una pronuncia storica

This paper discusses the recent decision by the Italian Constitutional Court relating to the criminal proceedings in absentia against four Egyptian intelligence officials accused of having kidnapped, tortured and murdered the Italian citizen Giulio Regeni in 2016. The Court ruled that Art. 420-bis of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure is inconsistent with the Constitution to the extent that it does not permit trial in absentia for the crime of torture, as defined in the UN Convention against Torture, when the impossi- bility to prove that the accused persons have knowledge of the proceedings is due to the unwillingness of the State of nationality to cooperate. The judgment is noteworthy inas- much as the Court, to reach this conclusion, recognized the peremptory character of the international prohibition of torture. However, this article highlights some shortcomings of the Court’s reasoning with regard to the characterization of torture as an crime and the scope of the Court’s decision. Notably, it is argued that the conclusions reached by the Court should not be limited to torture but should extend to any international crime.