/Giap/digest/ #12 - Child
Abuse, Frame-Ups and Free Speech: Wu Ming's inherited legal troubles - 28
January 2002
Marco Dimitri. "Never forget the struggle!"
From "La Repubblica", Italian newspaper, December 11th, 2001:
Luther Blissett will have to pay compensation to the public official Lucia
Musti and the book Lasciate che i bimbi [Let the Children...] must
be destroyed. It's a striking victory obtained by the magistrate that coordinated
the investigations into the "Children of Satan" over the collective name signatory
to the text. The civil tribunal found in her favor on all fronts, declaring
that two chapters "Children of Satan: Anatomy of a Frame Up" and "The Dimitry
case is over" of the book edited and published by Castelvecchi and distributed
on the internet "are damaging to her reputation". The verdict thus specifies
the sentencing of the publishing company to the book’s "withdrawal from
commerce and the destruction of the copies present in bookshops or in storage".
Should Castelvecchi wish to continue publication, they will have to agree
to remove the two incriminating paragraphs. These same paragraphs must also
be eliminated from internet sites. Another company, ‘Cybercore’,
will have to erase from a separate site part of an article that takes up the
argument, from the title " The truth is electric, and is distributed, is distributed,
is distributed." The convicted company will also have to publish the sentence
in several daily newspapers. Musti was granted damages of 80 million lira.
Her lawyer Nicola Alessandri, who acted for her together with Guido Magnisi,
declared that the principle objective of the action has been accomplished,
namely "the demostration of the defamatory content of some of the declarations
in the book by Luther Blissett." The lawyer Franco Bambini who defended the
signatory of the contract [between Castelvecchi and Luther Blissett], Roberto
Bui, insists that the decision will be contested. Bui believes that Musti's
demands have been "unrealistic. The book is present on many other web sites
and is ineradicable."
***
From "Il Resto del Carlino" (local right-wing rag in Bologna, where the scandal
developed.), same day:
The book registered by Luther Blissett defamed the magistrate Lucia Musti
and will be withdrawn from the market. The civil tribunal of bologna has thus
decided. The third section of the work titled Let the children... - Pedophilia
as a pretext for a witch hunt, published by Castelvecchi in the October
of 1997 and also distributed over the internet by the company ‘2008
Communications’. The book, which takes as its starting-point the trial
of the sect of Marco Dimitri, the “Children of Satan, was declared
injurious to the image of the Bolognese public official, pages in several
chapters specifically described the magistrate as 'intolerant and mentally
unstable', practically 'the armed wing of the Holy Inquisition' who
furthermore had 'a mania for protagonism'. The Tribunal ordered the publisher
and other defendants to withdraw the book (which can be republished provided
the removal of the incriminatory chapters) and to publish the verdict.
"The principal objective - said the lawyers for the public official, Guido
Magnisi and Nicola Alessandri - has been accomplished, as its content, defamatory
and damaging to the reputation of Dottoreessa Musti, has been fully demonstrated.
As for the compensation (450 million lira was sought) the quantification appears
consistent with what is otherwise the trend in the jurisprudence in this area.
A trend that unfortunately has not succeeded in finding, as distinct from
other countries, parameters adequate to the effective restitution for the
damage to the reputation and professionalism, beyond that more broadly moral,
that similar episodes generate for each person who is subject to attacks of
this type."
[Translations from Italian by the Hydrarchist]
***
The following, clarifying interview with Roberto Bui (a.k.a. Wu Ming 1, formerly
a member of the "Luther Blissett Project") was published on January 18th,
2002, on the local leftist magazine Zero in Condotta . Questions by
Marco Trotta, a well-known human rights hacktivist and animator of the Bologna
Social Forum.
[...]
A: Will you tell us about the legal troubles related to the book?
Q: A wide range of literary techniques, including cut-up, were used to write
Lasciate che i bimbi. The book gives an account of the three year period
that turned Europe into a big atrocity show-room, from 1996 to the end of
1998. In those days "pedophilia" was described as the most serious problem
in the world. It sounded like "pedophiles" were everywhere, a very powerful
clandestine organization, practically the occult masters of the Internet,
whose agents were on the prowl in all public spaces of every town. It was
an "emergency", indeed, a collective psychosis whose main consequences have
been a general retreat from the field of individual liberties: several national
parliaments passed laws based on censorship and the authorities destroyed
the lives of hundreds of individuals who were mistaken for "monsters", innocent
people whose names and faces would suddenly end up in the TV news or in the
press below sensational headlines.
In Italy Lasciate che i bimbi pioneered counterinformation on such
a disturbing issue as child abuse. From then on, alternative investigations
have proved that real abuse was often committed by the authorities for the
alleged purpose of "protecting the children". Even the National Council of
Magistrates is investigating the conduct of the notorious Pietro Forno, the
deputy district attorney who coordinates the activities of an "anti-pedophilia
team" in Milan, after Appeal Courts acquitted virtually every person he had
prosecuted!
Since the early days, *Lasciate che i bimbi* was targeted by reactionary lobby
groups and individuals who demanded its withdrawal and destruction. In particular,
at the beginning of 1998 Ms. Lucia Musti, formerly the public prosecutor in
the trial vs. Marco Dimitri and the Children of Satan (whose story is told
in the first chapter of the book) announced that the book "caused damages"
to her reputation and filed a civil lawsuit. In fact the book exposed all
the tricks she pulled, including the ridiculous statements and the shameful
exploitation of media sensationalism, things she did in order to depict Dimitri
as a monster and keep him rotting in jail.
Musti took legal action against the publisher (Castelvecchi) and two ISPs
whose servers hosted free electronic editions of the book (Cybercore Ltd.
and 2008 Comunicazione). She asked for a compensation of 450 million lire
[232,410 euros], the withdrawal and the destruction of all copies, as well
as the removal of the electronic editions from the Net. Oddly enough, her
summons compared the "anti-copyright" clause of the book to a "license to
kill", because it allegedly encouraged the out-of-control circulation of the
book and the multiplication of moral damages.
Later on, Castelvecchi revealed my name to the Tribunal and stated that I
was the "author" of the book, although *Lasciate che i bimbi* was a collective
work and I had just signed the contract. Therefore my position is bizarre:
my opposite party is not Musti, it is my former publisher!
As to the money, the Tribunal's verdict reappraised Musti's demands, and sentenced
a compensation of 80 million lire [about 41,000 euros]. Castelvecchi has to
pay 15,500 euros and I (i.e. the collective I represent) was sentenced
to give him the 50% of the figure after he pays. In the meanwhile,
Castelvecchi's firm went bankrupt, Musti has to get in the long queue of creditors,
I don't know what's going to happen. Of course we'll impugn the verdict. An
interesting thing is that the verdict doesn't identify me as the author of
the book, I was condemned as an "accessory" to the felony committed by Castelvecchi.
Q: Ms. Musti also led the investigations on the "Uno Bianca" fascist killers
in the early 1990's [some Bologna right-wing policemen founded a secret armed
group and started to "execute" gypsies and north-african migrants, t.n.].
Recently she indicted 57 demonstrators who took part to the big anti-fascist
action of May 13th, 2000 [almost 10,000 people prevented a neo-nazi group
called Forza Nuova to hold their national congress in Bologna, t.n.]...
A: Actually the investigations on the "Uno Bianca" fascist gang were coordinated
by her colleague Mr. Spinosa, Musti was her right arm. The two fellas went
on a false track and indicted the Santagata brothers, petty criminals living
in the Pilastro [a destitute working class district in the eastern outskirts
of Bologna, t.n.]. Spinosa and Musti kept the Santagatas in "preventive detection"
at the Dozza prison even after more serious investigations narrowed the circle
around the Savi brothers. They had gotten the wrong brothers! Ghetto 84, a
Bologna punk rock band, wrote a song about this story titled "Dozza Prison
Blues": "The newspapers nailed you / You're from the Pilastro, is that
a crime? / Voices and screams in the prison lobbies: / "It was the cops, not
us!".
As to the 57 indictments, I just want to notice that on May 13th, 20000 thousands
of people took the place of the cowardly institutions and enforced our Republic's
Constitutional Act by preventing fascists from holding their congress. The
fact that the DA's office indicted them instead of the dumb nephews of Mussolini
may persuade the public opinion that the DA only investigates "leeward", they
indict Satanists when the Holy Jubilee is incipient, then they indict antifascists
after a right-wing coalition took over Palazzo Chigi [the seat of the national
government, t.n.].
Q: The Tribunal sentenced that the book may be republished only if you expunge
the two incriminated chapters. What is their content and why did Ms. Musti
deemed it as slanderous?
A: The first chapter is titled "Children of Satan: deconstruction of a frame
up" and is a summing-up of our counter-inquiry and solidarity campaign. The
second one is not even a chapter, it is just a paragraph that was added as
an appendix after the Children of Satan were acquitted for the first time.
It is titled "The Dimitri case is over". Musti couldn't deny that the facts
we told are true, for the simple reason that during the investigation she
was interviewed by the local press at least three times a week and the more
she spoke out the more she gave Luther Blissett the rope to (metaphorically)
hang her. Given that the facts were not disputable, she clung on to our choice
of "incivil" words.
Musti's summons and the act of defense written by my lawyer Franco Bambini
are both available in *Back Pages*, the electronic pamphlet devoted to the
court case, which one can download for free at <
http://www.wumingfoundation.com/italiano/Giap/lasciate.htm > [only
in Italian].
Q: Another decision by the court was the removal of the book from all the
websites. Of course in the past four years many things have changed (for worse)
in the legislation on the Internet. Do you think that the sentence is enforceable?
Is that in contradiction with the freedom of speech granted by the Constitution?
A: I'll just point out that since 1998 mirror sites of the book proliferated
on the Net, which makes the enforcement of the sentence nearly impossible.
Q: What kind of actions are you preparing now?
A: As I told you, we are going to contest the verdict for obvious political
and ethical reasons. We have asked political groups and squats to help us
organize benefit parties to raise the money for filing the appeal. Civil suits
are very expensive.
Q: As you wrote in the book, the Children of Satan indictment roused your
interest after you realized it had little to do with justice and the group
was "framed". You touched the most sensitive nerves of our society and dealt
with such subjects as pedophilia and freedom of worship. Do you think that
the book is still useful in the present circumstances?
A: Nowadays more than ever, unfortunately. Two years later the Luther Blissett
Project published a fuller-bodied essay titled Nemici dello Stato: Criminali,
"mostri" e leggi speciali nella societa' di controllo [Enemies of the
State: Criminals, "Monsters" and Special Laws in the Society of Control].
The issues of *Lasciate che i bimbi* were studied and exposed in depth. We
put them in the context of a thirty-year repressive trend which turned "emergency"
into a real method of government. By "emergency" we mean this sequence: 1)
individuation and location of a public enemy; 2) media-driven moral panic;
3) renewal of the legislation. This started in the 1970's with "terrorism",
an emergency which was directly related to the public dimension of law &
order, then the process went on emergency by emergency, stirring up moral
panic on ever more "individual" issues, "cultural" issues in the narrowest
meaning of the adjective, emergencies that were related to biopolitics and
the behavioural patterns of single patterns, which marked the passage from
the old disciplinary society to the present-day society of control. Mass hysteria
on "pedophiles" and "cults" were striking examples of this.
After September 11th we were pushed back to the public emergency of "terrorism",
however things have changed since the 1970's, and the individuation of
the "terrorist" scapegoat is more biopolitical, it is the individuation of
an "alien" (the muslim, the enemy of western civilization etc.).
***
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS AVAILABLE:
Introduction to Let the Children... (HTML)
http://www.lutherblissett.net/primer/child.html
“Children of Satan: Deconstruction of a Frame-Up”: the incriminated
chapter (HTML):
http://www.lutherblissett.net/primer/deconstruct.html
Introduction to *Enemies of the State: Criminals, “Monsters” and
Special Laws in the Society of Control*
(downloadable as rtf + zip file):
http://www.wumingfoundation.com/italiano/enemies.zip
(downloadable as pdf + zip file):
http://www.wumingfoundation.com/pdfdownload/enemies_pdf1.zip
***
APPENDIX: IT WAS TWO YEARS
AGO TODAY
From Il Resto del Carlino, 27 January 2000, pag.9:
THE SECT'S ATROCITIES?
NOTHING EVER HAPPENED
Bologna, the "Children of Satan" acquitted in the 2nd degree trial.
Now Dimitri claims for damages.
by Nicoletta Rossi
BOLOGNA - Four years have passed, and nothing had happened. Four years
during which journalists and magistrated have poured rivers of ink on paper,
four years of the same old TV broadacasts. Four years of
controversies. The Children of Satan are innocent. No human sacrifice ever
took place. No collective rape. No mysterious potion was given to any victim.
Innocent. After two years and a half, the Appeal Court confirmed the Tribunal's
verdict: the acolytes of Marco Dimitri - founder and leader of the sect that
put Bologna within the triangle of magic cities - are not
guilty of any of the atrocities they were charged with, i.e. the rape of Elisabetta
Dozza (the 15-year-old girl who affiliated with the sect and then repented)
and more sexual violence on a 2.5-year-old little boy, plus
more improbable atrocities, including hanging around in Bologna on a van carrying
the corpse of an old woman, and killing a north-African immigrant and burning
his body during a ritual. Not to mention the alleged involvement with the
sect of unlikely persons, like a gentleman of noble birth and a Budrio-based
famous businessman.
Acquitted, for "the facts did not happen". The defendants were Marco Dimitri,
his "right arm" Piergiorgio Bonora (a young man who now has quitted the group,
got married and is about to become a father), and their former acolytes Cristina
Bagnolina, Emanuela Ferrari and Damiano Berto. The "repentant"'s former boy-friend
Rino Luongo was acquitted as well.
Yesterday afternoon, while awaiting the verdict, Luongo kept repeating: "Elisabetta's
lies were due to the fact that I'd left her, and she wanted to take vengeance".
Two women have been the gowned protagonists of the affair. Early on, the public
prosecutor Lucia Musti, who was certain that the sect was dangerous. Later,
during the appeal trial, the general prosecutor Eleonora De Marco, who asked
that the defendants be acquitted [...]
Marco Dimitri, probably because he's got nothing else to do [1], and Rino
Luongo, who works as a warehouseman, did not miss a hearing, as if they were
the most loyal citizens. "This is a defeat for those who depicted me as a
monster", commented Dimitri after the new acquittal [2]. And the lawyers who
have
defended the sect (Nicola Chirco, Guido Clausi Schettini, Roberto Bellogi
and Carla Mei) have announced a claim for damages on the ground of wrong detention,
for Dimitri, Bonora and Luogo stayed in jail for a year.[3]
[Box:]
NOW THE ACCUSER IS A PORN
STAR
Here is Elisabetta Dozza, who told stories of rape and murder
BOLOGNA - She was the great accuser of the Satanists. Now she's come of age
and works as a model. Well, not exactly: she's a softcore porn actress [4],
and her past in the sect is an inspiration for their performances: skulls,
black palls and all the usual satanic kitsch. She appears on specialized magazines,
and has acted in a movie.
When Elisabetta Dozza started to talk about satanic rituals with the Carabinieri,
it was november '95 and she was fifteen, chubby and unsightly.
Two years later, when she showed up at the first hearing of the trial, the
ugly duckling had turned into a skinny, trendy 18-year-old. She knew she was
the star.
Elisabetta did not live in a happy family, maybe she took the opportunity:
the more she told, the more she would get. [The DA office] moved her to a
new house, and she spent a summer in London, studying English, a vacation
that a girl of her class could never afford.
Elisabetta went too far, mixing true and false month by month, until she invalidated
a tale that had some credibility in the beginning. She was spoiled [by the
DA office], this is the position of general prosecutor De
Marco. It may be the truth. (Ni.Ro.)
Footnotes by Wu Ming 1, January 27th, 2000:
1. Dimitri's got nothing else to do because he can't get no fucking
job. The Carlino has exploited him as the perfect front-page news bogeyman
and destroyed his life.
2. I was there myself, and Dimitri said: "This is a defeat for the Carlino".
3. During that year, the Carlino interviewed Lucia Musti at least a dozen
times, describing her as a new Joan of Arc fighting for faith.
4. This isn't quite correct, 'cause she's a *hard*-core porn actress. Here's
the blurb of one of the two movies she worked in ("Bologna: XXX Satan
vol.2"): "During a short interval in her judiciary testimonies, the
super-witness against the Bologna satanists gives fantastic blow jobs and
gets breath-takingly fucked in the ass". From tragedy to farce, and
this is no moralistic remark: the mythomaniac who'd become a family-value,
hearth'n'home heroine, was exploited by the DA office vampires, then they
discarded her when she became useless (i.e. after the first acquittal). Now
she makes a living out of her former
spectacular role. Soon, people will understand that she's a victim herself.
Back to tragedy.
--------
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