Monday, February 1, 2010

Am I Still a Criminal?


In September of 2009 I became a criminal in Italy. My crime was to speak my opinion about an incompetent Italian prosecutor named Giuliano Mignini. Mignini responded by saying he would indict me for defamation and further that he would indict the journalist who quoted me and the newspaper that printed it.

Last week, Giuliano Mignini was found guilty by an Italian court of illegal phone tapping, abuse of high office, and dereliction of duty. He was sentenced to 16 months in jail.

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations Joe -
    Getting indicted by this out-of-control maniac in Italy is getting to become kind of routine but you should still consider it a badge of honor.
    Remember - it took the Italians a long time to realize Mussolini was a mistake.
    They actually supported him too at first.

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  2. Seriously, what an odd, unstable man. I hope he goes straight to jail to serve his sentence after the conclusion of the knox trial and the innocent are acquitted.

    I almost spat out my water in laughter upon reading your comments about this "preening, intellectually dishonest bully". Getting charged for that truly merits a badge of honor. And if it weren't for this indictment, I would never have stumbled across your beautiful work.

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  3. I truly appreciate the virtual "badge of honor." Thanks for your support.

    I got so much hate mail over this subject, it's a relief to hear that there are other supporters of sanity on this planet.

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  4. Hey, didn't know if you had a twitter account or not. Wanted to share something with you. One of the people Mignini sued for defamation was a journo named Frank Sfarzo. I remember calling the CPJ when I witnessed stuf the cops doing. They were following him. CPJ impressed the heck out of me and actually stood up for him. But still this man tried to shut him down by suing. Franks trial was today. Giuliano Mignini did not show up. His excuse was that he was not notified. How's that for incompetent? He did not pursue the charge to Amanda or the separate one to her parents either. Anyway, thought you'd get a chuckle out of it.#narrowlyescapes ;)

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