Carlo Taormina

Carlo Taormina (born 16 December 1940) is an Italian lawyer, politician, jurist, and academic. Taormina was the defense lawyer of some of the most controversial trials in modern Italian history, from that of the Ustica affair to the trial of the Nazi Erich Priebke, and to the Abu Omar case and the Cogne homicide case. He entered politics in 1996, joining Forza Italia, the political party of Silvio Berlusconi. That same year, he ran for the Chamber of Deputies but was not elected.

Taormina was elected a deputy in 2001 but was not included among the candidates for re-election in 2006, after which he left politics. Taormina was Deputy Group Leader of Forza Italia in the Chamber of Deputies, and was briefly state undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior; he had to resign due to defending some mafia defendants. He also extended the law of legitimate suspiction, one of the many Berlusconi's ad personam laws, and headed several parliamentary commissions, such as the inquiry into the death of Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin. In 2009 and 2010, he was the unsuccessful candidate for The Autonomy and Italy League to the European Parliament and the Regional Council of Lazio, respectively.

After the end of his full-time political career in 2006, Taormina became one of the main commentators for the Italian sports talk program Il processo di Biscardi. In 2008, he founded his own movement, Italy League, which ended in 2011. That same year, he became an independent politician close to Lega Nord, and since 2014 was close to the Five Star Movement (M5S), which he joined in 2016. After leaving the M5S in 2019, he founded Free Italy with New Force and former M5S militants in 2020. In 2022, he also joined South calls North, and was the party's unsuccessful candidate for that year's general election.

In addition to the individuals that he defended as a lawyer, including a former SS captain, mafia defendants, and neo-fascist leaders, Tarquinia attracted criticism for his comments about gay people. In 2014, he was convicted of discrimination on the job of homosexual individuals; the sentence was upheld in 2015 and 2020.

Early life, education, and lawyer career
Born in Rome on 16 December 1940, Taormina graduated in Law from La Sapienza university, becoming at first a lawyer and at a later time a magistrate. During his career as a lawyer, Taormina worked on many famous cases, including among others the Itavia Flight 870 accident, where he defended the officials accused of hiding valuable information that could have defined the causes of the incident; the Ardeatine massacre, where he defended ex-SS captain Erich Priebke, alongside Velio Di Rezze and Paolo Giachini, on the grounds that "[Priebke] obeyed an order he considered legitimate and for this reason after many years he did not regret it, but considered the fact as a horror"; the murder of Marta Russo, where he lodged a complaint against the magistrates and investigators, without having any connection with the defence of the accused Giovanni Scattone, Salvatore Ferraro, and Francesco Liparota; the Cogne homicide, where he substituted professor Carlo Federico Grosso in the defence of Annamaria Franzoni, and was subsequently substituted by lawyer Paola Savio; the homicide of SISMI agent Nicola Calipari in Baghdad, where he presided as the defender of Gianluca Preite; and the murder of Yara Gambirasio, where he took part as a private citizen to the process arguing for a re-examination of the DNA found on the crime scene to grant Massimo Giuseppe Bossetti, at the time facing life in prison, a more revision of his trial. In 2004, he said: "After Anna Maria Franzoni, I will deal with Saddam Hussein. His sister called me from Jordan." In 2021, he said that he still believed Fronzoni was innocent.

Taormina was the private lawyer for some of the accused for Tangentopoli, such as Bettino Craxi, Giulio Andreotti, and Vincenzo Muccioli, and accused the Mani pulite judges of being justicialists. He also defended the Sacra Corona Unita boss Francesco Prudentino, and was the lawyer of Franco Freda, a neo-fascist, in the court case for the disbandment of the far-right political party National Front. He was the plaintiff lawyer for the parents of the children from Rignano Flaminio that were suspected of pedophilia. He further defended Mario Placanica, a carabiniere accused of the murder of Carlo Giuliani during the Group of Eight meetings in Genova in 2001, Nicola Di Girolamo during his trial for the criminal association for money laundering on an international level and the infraction of the electoral law, as well as of mafia association in 2010, and Franco Fiorito in the scandal for peculation by the Regional Council of Lazio headed by Renata Polverini during September 2012. He was the lawyer of Roberto Fiore and Giuliano Castellino, leaders of New Force. Ex-Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari member Luigi Aronica, Biagio Passaro (leader of the IoApro movement), and Pamela Testa were arrested for the assault on the CGIL headquarters during the No Green Pass demonstration on 9 October 2021. He said: "I am a lawyer, I have defended mafiosi, corrupt white collar workers. Mine is a profession." In 2023, Fiore, Castellino, and Testa were all sentenced to more than 8 years in prison. He also unsuccessful defended Cateno De Luca in a 2023 defamation trial.

Academic career
Taormina during his lawyer career was dedicated to teaching other academics. In 1975, he became a professor of penal procedures at the University of Macerata; he still teaches penal procedures at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. His teaching method was influenced mainly by Alfredo De Marsico, Giuseppe Sabatini, and Giovanni Conso. Taormina has also written a series of pamphlets and research papers, which mainly focus on the relationship between the accusers and the accused. Some of his most famous scripts are a manual on process law and several monographs. He also wrote and held the role of co-director for the journal Il Foro Italiano, which was founded in 1972. In 1975, Taormina became the editorial director for the specialistic magazine La Giustizia Penale.

Forza Italia and Berlusconi governments
Taormina began his political career in 1996, becoming a candidate for Forza Italia for the Chamber of Deputies in the college of Monte Sacro in Rome representing the Pole for Freedoms; he obtained 49.9% of the consensus and was defeated for a few votes by fellow lawyer Ennio Parrelli representing The Olive Tree. During the legislature XIV of Italy (2001–2006), Taormina was a deputy representing Forza Italia, being given the role of Deputy Group Leader of the party in the Chamber of Deputies. He was elected in the district No. 29 (Melzo) of the III constituency (Lombardy 1) through a decoy list in the 2001 Italian general election. His political role was not renewed for the legislature XV of Italy (2006–2008). In regards to his political activities during these years and being Silvio Berlusconi's secretary and private lawyer, Taormina declared: "I would never do many things I did back then. I am not embarrassed to say that I experienced a moral crisis, which culminated when I saw how the Knight's [referring to Berlusconi] narrower entourage was being structured."

In 2001, Taormina was briefly state undersecretary to the Ministry of the Interior in the second Berlusconi government; he resigned after six months on 5 December 2001, when the press pointed to his role as deputy secretary "for matters relating to the coordination of anti-racketeering and anti-usury initiatives, and the coordination of solidarity initiatives for the victims of mafia-type crimes", which was in a conflict of interest with the exercise of legal defence in favour of various defendants for mafia events and in criminal trials in which the state had formed a civil party. In particular, the episode in which he presented himself as the legal defender of the Sacra Corona Unita boss Francesco Prudentino caused a sensation, accompanied by the escort he was entitled to as a state undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior. In 2002, Taormina extended the original text on Berlusconi's ad personam law on legitimate suspicion, which was called at a later time Cirami Law. In 2010, he recalled:

""I worked for Berlusconi for years, I know his strategies. When I was his legal advisor and asked me to write him laws that protect him from the judiciary, it made no secret of their purpose ad personam. And I wrote them even better than they do now Ghedini and Pecorella. The one on legitimate suspicion, it seems to me, was in 2002, he needed to move his processes from Milan to Rome. He asked us openly and we, faithful executors of the prince's will, began to write it. And we also did a nice job, I have to say: it seemed all right. Then one evening in late October, around 11, a call from Ciampi arrived. I told Berlusconi that with that change it would no longer be of any use. He thought about it for a while and then replied: 'In the meantime, let's do it like that, then we'll see.' I was right: in fact the law passed with those changes and it didn't help him.""

Retirement from politics
In 2003, Taormina was the chairman of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the death of Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin; at that time, his involvement aroused controversy when he was accused of having used investigative powers to control the work of the other commission based at the time in Palazzo San Macuto. This commission was working on the Telekom Serbia affair, of which he was also a member. He said: "The time has come for Prodi, Fassino, and Dini to suffer the consequences of the most devastating corruption that has ever been consumed in the history of the Republic and the Judicial offices must also behave accordingly by arranging these characters for arrest." The Alpi affair and Taormina's role continued to attract controversy into the 2010s,  and he made an appearance as an animated character in the 2016 animated film Somalia94 – The Ilaria Alpi Affair by Marco Giolo and published by Dynit. In September 2003, following the investigations of La Repubblica, Taormina made amends and announced his withdrawal from political life, although he remained in the Italian Parliament for the remainder of the legislature until 2006. He said: ""I confess, I am the puppeteer, the puppeteer of this whole affair, I declare myself by competition in slander with Paoletti, Marini, and Pintus. [I] created difficulties for Forza Italia and Berlusconi. [It is therefore right] that I withdraw from political life. I made a serious mistake, and this is an open confession, it is right that I make public amends; I acknowledge that Repubblica is equipped with top-ranking journalists. I am making a serious announcement, I will resign as a deputy in the next few days. Through the various processes indicated by Repubblica and for my relationships with characters such as D'Andria, Fracassi, Di Bari, and also Francesco Pazienza, all connected by the collective imagination to diverted secret services and to international scams and money laundering, I managed to reach the aim to put the Telekom Serbia Commission to be subject to a poisoned meatball. I take all responsibility for characters who by calling into question Prodi, Dini, and Fassino have seriously slandered them; and I accuse myself of competition in slander, although I hope that Repubblica will do the same, because while I accuse myself I would like to know from D'Avanzo and Bonini who their puppeteers of the time were and to whom they are now serving. Repubblica is right, I can't sue!""

Legislative activity
Taormina presented several bills as the first signatory, mainly in the legal-procedural field, including:
 * Provisions for the simplification of the criminal justice system (C.2668, approved as an integrated text with others)
 * Provisions regarding the prescription of the crime and the conditional suspension of the sentence (C.2709)
 * Indult concession (C.3151) – rejected
 * Penitentiary treatment in emergency situations (C.3313) – absorbed by the approval of the combined DDL
 * Abolition of compulsory prosecution (C.3941)
 * Discipline of the immunity of parliamentarians from criminal proceedings and from the execution of sentencing sentences (C.4615)
 * Provisions for the reasonable length of trials and for the best protection of constitutional freedoms (C.6064)

As a co-signer, Taormina presented proposals related to different topics (euthanasia, soft drugs, prostitution, death penalty, civil unions, and same-sex marriage):
 * Amendment to article 27 of the Constitution concerning the abolition of the death penalty (C.2072), to abolish the "cases foreseen by the military war laws"
 * Amendments to the Consolidated Law on Narcotic Drugs on the Legalization of Cannabis Derivatives, Controlled Heroin Administration, Therapeutic Use of Marijuana (C.2973)
 * Euthanasia legalization provisions (C.2974)
 * Raising the minimum retirement age (C.2976)
 * Reduction of terms of pre-trial detention and for the simplification of early release procedures (C.2977)
 * Single-member districts and first-past-the-post reform of the electoral system of the High Council of the Judiciary (C.2978)
 * Provisions relating to the establishment of the register of civil unions of same-sex couples or of different sexes and the possibility for same-sex persons to access the institution of marriage (C.2982)
 * Simplification of procedures and reduction of time for obtaining a divorce (C.2983)
 * Rules on medically assisted procreation and therapeutic cloning (C.2984)
 * Provisions for the legalization of prostitution (C.2985)
 * State presidential reform (C.3942)

Post-retirement activities
On 7 November 2008, Taormina founded Italy League, a movement chaired by Taormina himself, with which he ran for the presidency in the 2010 Lazio regional election and the 2016 Italian local elections. He called Italy League for a "national liberation government for state reforms". In 2009, Taormina launched himself against Beppino Englaro and the magistrates of Udine for allowing death by Eluana Englaro, announcing a premeditated murder complaint. Taormina opposed the bill on the short trial, calling it "shameful, criminal, criminogenic, and ridiculous". According to Taormina, Berlusconi pressed for the approval of the short trial as a threat to raise the price and obtain the law on the legitimate impediment. This rule, which according to Taormina is "clearly unconstitutional" in that "the precondition for impediment is a charge", is explicitly temporary to allow the approval of the Lodo Alfano as a constitutional law. In 2011, Taormina was appointed prince regent of Filettino, a municipality in the Frosinone area whose mayor, in reaction to the decision to cut the number of comuni as part of the financial budget law of the fourth Berlusconi government, started a secessionist movement. About the financial budget law of the Monti government in 2012, Taormina declared that he agreed with the Northern League's criticism. In an interview with the radio program La Zanzara in 2013, Taormina replied that the greatest criminal he had defended was a former Christian Democracy member of Parliament that by then was no longer in politics. In 2017, Taormina was one of the many signers of the appeal of the newspaper Il Tempo asking for release, with postponement and suspension under penalty of health reasons, in favour of the former parliamentarian Marcello Dell'Utri, who was sentenced for external competition in mafia association and other crimes minors.

On 7 March 2016, Taormina announced that he had joined the Five Star Movement (M5S),  which he had already supported in the 2014 European Parliament election in Italy. In a Facebook post, Taormina wrote: "After having always voted and supported M5S, yesterday I formalized my membership in the movement to make a contribution to the only political force legitimized to overthrow this Renzusconian regime [a play of word between the then Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and Berlusconi]. I will be able to do little but I will do everything for that little." He later further specified that he did not want to return to active politics and preferred to continue his career as a lawyer, supporting Beppe Grillo's movement as a private citizen. On 26 March 2016, Taormina attacked the Democratic Party deputy Diana De Marchi, saying: "De Marchi, go to ISIS to get raped a bit, don't worry, it's a sacrifice for integration. What the hell is she saying! She gets a little raped if she likes integration. Go, it's good for you... Cheat on your husband and get pregnant!" In 2017, Taormina took part to Italia a 5 Stelle, the official festival of the M5S, being contested by some activists. Following the birth of the second Conte government in 2019, Taormina left the M5S, opposing the alliance with the Democratic Party. In 2020, Taormina filed a complaint against the second Conte government for its alleged failure to apply timely prophylactic action against the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

On 14 December 2020, Taormina announced the birth of a new political entity, Free Italy, which was joined by New Force militants including Giuliano Castellino, some militants who had left the M5S, and exponents of No Mask and the Orange Vests of the former Carabinieri general Antonio Pappalardo. On 12 October 2021, Taormina was the lawyer for the five arrested, including the two leaders of New Force, following attacks that took place in a No Green Pass demonstration in which he was also present. Although he was vaccinated, Taormina opposed the Green Pass. In an interview to La Stampa, he defined Free Italy "a sort of national liberation government for state reforms. And it is certainly not a left-wing organization." On 2 August 2022, Taormina announced his candidacy in Lazio for the 2022 Italian general election with South calls North, the political party of Cateno De Luca. In 2023, he defended the lawyer Alessandra Demichelis, who had been suspended for 15 months by the district disciplinary council of the Order of the Lawyers due to the pics she published on Instagram. Taormina said that "the private sphere is sacred" and commented: "Cicciolina was a member of Parliament, and outside she was a pornstar; Berlusconi was Prime Minister and went bunga bunga in the evening." When Berlusconi died in June 2023, Taormina put him alongside Italy's most famous statesmen, such as Alcide De Gasperi, Aldo Moro, Giulio Andreotti, and Bettino Craxi. About Forza Italia, Taormina stated that Berlusconi never considered it a party, and that it had a political culture where even communists had a voice and that Berlusconi never hated communists. He further stated that he did not regret the ad personam laws, saying: "They were self-defense in the face of the judges' intolerable games."

Association football commentary
Since 2007, Taormina participates as an association football commentator on the sports broadcast Il processo di Biscardi, distinguishing himself both for his AS Roma faith and for his aversion to Juventus. He lamented in 2007 that football was doing everything wrong. He said: "The world of football is really strange: when it suits it, it considers itself a private organization and therefore claims the arbitration clause and that one of its members cannot sue anyone without authorization, finally it wants to implement arbitral justice like in Calciopoli, even if to define it as such is really too much given how the matter was administered, with the arbitration almost eliminating the previous sentences. Laugh out loud stuff. On the one hand they want to be a closed system, then suddenly they demand that the police force guarantee security. Instead they should pay the costs themselves to ensure order, even if this does not mean inattention on the part of the state." About capital gains in football, he stated: "Administrative doping has always existed, it is a normal practice of football clubs, recently they have published the names of unknown players valued in millions and millions. I have known this story since the 1980s when I was on the boards of directors. Inter has a deficit of 6−700 billion of the old lire and continues to spend and squander. False accounting, such as invoicing of non-existent transactions or inflating prices, is a recurring practice of all entrepreneurs and football is no exception." He claimed to have foreseen Calciopoli and was also the lawyer of Franco Sensi, who spoke of a criminal association in football.

In 2008, Taormina said that, as a lawyer, the actions of Juventus lawyer Cesare Zaccone, who had told the judge Cesare Ruperto that relegation to Serie B was appropriate punishment (although in reality Zaccone merely meant to say that Juventus did not deserve any punishment further than the other clubs, all of which were eventually saved from relegation, his actions came to be seen an guilty admission or plea deal request) as "very serious". He further stated: "If there had been a malicious act, we would have called it unfaithful patronage." In 2011, Taormina presented a denounce to Rome's Public Prosecution Office, alleging match fixing in association football. In 2014, Taormina had a diatribe with an imitator of Luciano Moggi during the radio program La Zanzara. In 2019, Taormina defined himself an enemy of Juventus, and defended the club's ultras in the Last Banner inquiry about their pressure on the club to have tickets and season tickets and on the private violence towards other fans. He exited from the legal team before the first-instance trial, which resulted in six convictions and six acquittals. Taormina was denounced for defamation by Alberto Pairetto, who had denounced the behavior of the club's ultras, due to Taormina's words about his father Pierluigi Pairetto. According to Pairetto's lawyer Maria Turco, Taormina's words were defamatory because they implied that he is able to influence the results of the matches due to his brother being a referee and thus explaining the alleged refereeing favours that Juventus would be rewarded with.

In March 2024, Taormina commented on the Francesco Acerbi–Juan Jesus racist case, saying that he was not surprised, and explained: "The [Italian Football] Federation's position on the subject has always been very reliable, the first actions had already made it clear that we would move towards this line. Even Spalletti, who worked with the Napoli defender for many years, said he believed the Inter centre-back's story. I am amazed at those who are stunned by the federal president's declarations." Acerbi, who had apologized to Jesus but then retracted, was acquitted due to a lack of evidence, although Serie B and Serie C's precedents pointed to at least a 10-match ban even with lack of evidence, and two rulings from the Italian Football Federation's supreme court (the National Federal Tribunal), including a united section one, held that it is sufficient to believe the victim as long as their testimony is credible. Taormina commented: "The assessment of Acerbi's non-disqualification was not appropriate. We needed to make a rule that allowed us to be more flexible, not just 10 [missed] matches. You can't say that nothing happened because something happened, a way had to be found to reconcile the various needs. They handled the thing as if nothing had happened, while Acerbi instead behaved like a racist without him intending to be."

Judicial processes
Despite having supported liberal opinions like the institution of homosexual civil unions during his political activity, Taormina made some controversial statements to La Zanzara in 2013, saying that he did not want to hire homosexual collaborators in his office. The Bergamo Labour Court, following the appeal filed by the Advocate Association for LGBTI Rights – Lenford Network considered that Taormina's expressions were, as discriminatory towards homosexuals, suitable to dissuade certain subjects from submitting their candidacies to professional study and therefore likely to hinder their access to work or make it more difficult, in violation of the rules protecting equal treatment in terms of employment and working conditions. For this reason, Taormina was sentenced on 6 August 2014 to pay €10,000 as compensation for damages. Following the sentencing, he challenged the measure on freedom of expression grounds, asking for its reform to the Brescia Court of Appeal, which rejected his appeal on 23 January 2015, and confirmed the first instance measure sentence of 11 December 2014. He subsequently presented a further appeal to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation, which involved the Court of Justice of the European Union after the Supreme Court of Cassation asked whether such a homophobic statement constitute discrimination in access to work. On 23 April 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed the conviction and the payment of €10,000 in compensation.

Personal life
Taormina is married to Celestina Del Signore. In 2022, after more than forty years of civil union, the two married under the Catholic rite. On 28 May 2009, Taormina was the victim of a €2.3 million theft (jewels and cash money) in his villa. The Supreme Court of Cassation annulled the acquittals in the first two instance trials and called for a new trial.