Roberto Castelli

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Roberto Castelli (born 12 July 1946) is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord, of which he is floor leader in the Senate.

[edit] Career

Born in Lecco (Lombardy), Castelli is an acoustics engineer, and has been in politics with the Northern League since 1986. In 1992, Castelli was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and he was confirmed in 1994. Since 1996 he sits in Senate of Republic, and for two years (1999-2001) he was chairman of parliamentary group of the Northern League in the Senate, as he is now.

[edit] Minister of Justice

In fall 2004, he completed a highly controversial reform of the judiciary^[1], but initially President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, even though he had been pressured by Castelli to do so, refused to sign bill^[2]. The law was passed again in spring 2005^[3].

As a minister, he refused to sign President Ciampi's decision to pardon Adriano Sofri, leading to a conflict of powers in which the President has tried to reassert its exclusive competence in the matter (as stated in article 87 of the Constitution of Italy), and the minister claimed that he had the right to object. He also refused to request the extradition of 22 alleged CIA agents from the United States who were implicated in the kidnapping and torture of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr.