Italy’s ruling party minister indicted for racism
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Italy’s minister of regions and autonomies, Roberto Calderoli, has been convicted of racism, RIA Novosti reports citing the state television news service Rai.
The guilty verdict was handed down by the court of the city of Bergamo, it provides for seven months in prison. Calderoli, who is also a prominent member of the ruling League party, reportedly racially slandered Congo-born former integration minister Cécile Chienje. She became the first black minister in Italian history.
The incident occurred in 2013, when Calderoli, who at that time held the post of vice-president of the Senate, compared Chienzhe with an orangutan. Later, the politician said that his words were “not political, but aesthetic.”
In January 2019, Calderoli was sentenced by the trial court to 18 months in prison, but with a suspended sentence. In the future, the case was sent for review, and as a result, despite the guilty verdict, the minister will not spend a single day behind bars, since the statute of limitations expires in December.
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