Download - Transcrime - Università degli Studi di Trento

10. Italian legislation and judicial competences in the fight against trafficking and smugglingthe Italian legislators have sought to meet the requests long expressed by theprosecutor’s offices most active in the fight against trafficking in persons. 14110.3.2 The new investigative instruments: interceptions, under-cover activity,delayed arrest and seizure, penal benefits for state’s witnesses, confiscation andprevention measuresLaw 228/2003 enlarges the range of instruments available to the agenciesinvestigating the trafficking in persons and related crimes, implementing most ofthe suggestions made by the prosecutors interviewed for this study.‘Controlled delivery’ and under-cover activity are by now indispensable assets forinvestigations into organised crime. These techniques are specifically mentioned inarticle 20 of the Palermo Convention, and they also figure among other instrumentsagainst offences frequently committed by organised criminal groups, such as drugtrafficking (article 97 and 98 of the consolidated text of the Law on Drugs).These instruments, in fact, enable investigators to go beyond the final links in theorganisational chain (for example, the passeurs in the case of trafficking inpersons) and determine the structure that directs the criminal activity.Given the usually associative nature of the crimes related to the trafficking inpersons, law 228/2003 allows the prosecutor to delay the execution ofprecautionary measures, arrest, seizure, or police detention when this is necessaryto acquire important evidence and to identify or arrest the perpetrators of thecrimes envisaged by articles 600, 601 and 602 criminal code, as well as thoserelated to prostitution ex article 3 of law no. 75, 20 February 1958.The same rationale inspires the extension of the provisions of article 4, paragraph1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of legislative decree no. 374, 18 October 2001 on under-coveractivities, converted with amendment by law no. 438 15 December 2001, whichprovides urgent measures for combating international terrorism.Finally, prosecutors have greater powers to use interceptions in the case of crimescovered by articles 600, 601 and 602 criminal code, as well as crimes relating toprostitution as envisaged by article 3 of law no. 75, 20 February 1958 (see article 9of law 288/2003). In particular, the exemption already provided for offencesrelating to organised crime (article 13, legislative decree no. 152, 13 May 1991,converted into law no. 203, 12 July 1991) is extended to these cases as well,facilitating the use of this instrument. 142141 Modifications to the assignment of investigations and the extension of their maximum time-limit havebeen made by addition of articles 51 to paragraph 3-bis and 407, paragraph 2, letter a) to the criminalprocedure code. These modifications have had important consequences also regarding investigationsecrecy and notification of enrolment of suspects on the relevant register, interceptions, time-limits for thebeginning of prosecution, maximum duration of preventive detention, and separation of proceedings. For athorough examination see R. Bricchetti, op. cit., p. 52.142 Article 13 of legislative decree no. 152, 13 May 1991, as converted into law no. 203 12 July 1991,provides that, in derogation to article 267 criminal procedure code, authorisation for interceptions shall begiven when it is “necessary for the carrying out of investigations”, not when it is “absolutely essential” as90