Italy's Senate greenlights new law on legitimate self-defense

ROME, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Italy's Senate gave final green light to a new Law on legitimate self-defense on Thursday.

Lawmakers in the upper house of parliament passed the Law with a wide majority of 201 votes in favor, 38 against and 6 abstentions.

The bill was a flagship proposal of the right-wing League party led by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, which forms Italy's coalition government with the Five Star Movement (M5S).

"From now on, there will be no more reimbursement for relatives of burglars. We are not going to distribute weapons, nor we legitimate any'Wild West', but we stand by the honest citizens," Salvini told local media in parliament, and wrote later on the League's official Facebook account.

"From now on, criminals are aware that being a robber in Italy will be more difficult and more dangerous," he added.

The new legislation expands the rights of citizens to self-defense, amending a previous Law approved in 2006 that had already expanded the circumstances under which it was Lawful to resort to this behaviour.

The new Law makes it legal to react against any intruder entering one's own property by any possible mean, even shooting, and regardless of a possible physical danger for the citizen.

Under the original legislation, a citizen could react to an intruder in their home only if under direct physical threat. Even in case of self-defense, citizens had to prove to have been in reasonable fear for their life, or else they could be held liable for any injury to the intruder, and even charged with manslaughter.

The new Law says that self-defense at home is "always legitimate," even when the act of defense proves lethal. However, the victims of intrusion would still need to prove that the force they used in self-defense was in proportion to the perceived threat.

The new legislation also increases the maximum penalty in case of theft and robbery to six and seven years in jail, respectively, and that for housebreaking from 1-4 years to 2-6 years.

The Law has been widely supported by right-wing and center-right political forces in an effort to respond to the plea of many citizens who -- especially in the northern regions -- felt themselves not adequately protected against robbery.

It was strongly opposed by the center-left and leftist forces, which claimed that it could encourage an increase in weapons possession by introducing rules similar to those of the United States.

Among those who advocated against the new Law was Italy's National Association of Magistrates (ANM), which said this legislation was "not needed."

"The legitimate defense reform contains serious fLaws," ANM chief Francesco Minisci told the Lower House Justice Committee in a hearing in January.

"The principle of proportionality cannot be abandoned, otherwise there will be no more rules or borders, with the risk of legitimizing the most serious crimes, even murder," he stressed.

In his address, later published on ANM's official website, Minisci also doubted whether some elements of the new Law were consistent with Italy's Constitution.