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Italy - Court of Cassation, 8 September 2011, No. 18493/2011
Country of Decision:
Country of Applicant:
Date of Decision:
08-09-2011
Citation:
No. 18493/2011
Court Name:
Court of Cassation
Keywords:
National / Other Legislative Provisions:
Italy - Legislative Decree No. 25 of 28 January 2008
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Headnote:
Article 10 of Legislative Decree 25/2008 sets out guarantees for asylum seekers as regards procedural access according to which the asylum seeker should be informed not only of his rights and obligations during the procedure but also on the means and times available to him for his asylum application. In addition, section 4 provides for timely information to be given to the Applicant concerning the decision taken by the Territorial Commission. This should be provided in the first language indicated by the Applicant or in one of the four official languages.
This provision has to be respected for the procedure to be valid.
Facts:
The asylum seeker submitted an appeal to the Court in Trieste against a decision of the Territorial Commission rejecting his asylum application but failed to comply with the thirty-day deadline for appeals because he had not understood the Italian text in the decision. Both the Court and the Appeals Court in Trieste had ruled that the appeal was inadmissible because it was submitted too late and that there was no justification for submitting the appeal with a delay of over ten months. An appeal against this decision was submitted to the Supreme Court of Cassation.
Decision & Reasoning:
The Court of Cassation upheld the appeal primarily because there had been no translation of the decision of the Territorial Commission into a language that the Applicant understood, or even into a global language once it had been established that there was no translator. Indeed, the Court held that communication of the rejection had taken place in violation of the regulations according to which all communications from the Commission should be either in the language indicated by the foreign applicant or in the chosen language out of the four principal languages (English, French, Arabic or Spanish). According to the Court, compliance with this regulation is mandatory and violation of it results in the procedure being null and void. Indeed, the provisions constitute a guarantee for an applicant to be able to mount a defence and this cannot be impaired in any way. In addition, the Court noted that the judgment concerning the merits of the case had been focused on the delay in the submission of the appeal and on a general assumption that the decision rejecting the application had been understood, whereas comprehension of the appeal options and deadlines had clearly been limited.
Outcome:
Appeal upheld and the contested judgment was overturned.
Case Law Cited:
Italy - Court of Cassation, No. 17908/2010
Italy - Court of Cassation, No. 24170/2010
