Italy: La Corte Suprema di Cassazione: Sesta Sezione Civile: Case 11586/12, 18/04/2012

The Corte Suprema di Cassazione (second grade of appeal only on matters of law) ruled against a decision of the Court of Appeal that overturned the decision of the first instance court (Tribunale) which granted humanitarian protection status to a Tunisian national on grounds of the persecution he would have suffered being gay and Christian (he did not get asylum or subsidiary protection due to his criminal activities).

The Corte Suprema di Cassazione stated that the Court of Appeal was wrong in overturning the decision of the first court and denying protection because it did not consider that there was also a decision taken in judicial proceedings against the expulsion order in which the judge, because of the danger of persecution for the applicant in his country of origin, canceled the expulsion declaring that the applicant could not be subjected to expulsion because of it. This decision had not been appealed so in the meantime it had become final. The Corte Suprema di Cassazione therefore considered that the Court of Appeal decision was unlawful as it did not consider the existence of a final decision concerning the need for humanitarian protection for an applicant who cannot be expelled. The appeal decision was hence canceled and the case was sent back to the Court of Appeal for a new decision.

For the full text of the ruling (in Italian) please visit:  La Corte Suprema di Cassazione: Case 11586/12

Special thanks to Ms. Seraina Nufer, Prof. Holger Hoffman and Ms. Maria Cristina Romano, ELENA Coordinators for Switzerland, Germany and Italy respectively, for flagging these judgments and assisting in drafting their summaries. 

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