AFP/DPA/Rome
Prosecutors in Rome have launched a probe into calls for the assassination of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi posted on the Internet-based social network Facebook, news reports said yesterday.
Perpetrators face charges of “aggravated threat”, the daily La Repubblica reported.
“Let’s kill Berlusconi” is the title of one Facebook account with some 16,000 members, set up in September 2008 then “left to its fate” until a member calling himself Companion Raul took it over earlier this month and said he did not want anyone dead, the report said.
Another Facebook account with around 300 members is entitled “Death to Berlusconi”.
Despite Raul’s insistence that he “does not want to incite anyone to break the law”, members have posted messages on the page giving their full names, including one who wrote: “Silvio, you’ll end up like Kennedy.”
Several cabinet ministers slammed what they called a “hate campaign”, and opposition leader Dario Franceschi called for the site to be shut down.
Italian police have also asked Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, to deactivate public access to the site “Death to Berlusconi” without taking it off the network.
Legal authorities in Rome have asked Facebook to pass on the personal details of those making the threats.
Italian officials have threatened to file a suit if Facebook does not comply and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini issued a stern warning, recalling the 1970s when Italy witnessed a spate of assassinations.
“The younger ones among you do not know what Italy was like at the start of the 70s which was followed by a decade of violence and crimes that were sparked by verbal threats which metamorphosed in tragic fashion into armed violence.”
Frattini said he wanted these “disgraceful initiatives to be isolated, fought and defeated firmly”.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni also indicated that members of the “Let’s Kill Berlusconi” group would be reported to the judiciary.
The group appears on the Facebook category “Just for Fun - Outlandish Statements”.
“I believe that not one country in the world exists where someone can write ‘let’s kill the premier’ on a website,” Maroni said, speaking at a press conference in the central city of L’Aquila.
“It amounts to a defending a crime. Even worse, it is a problem of culture if someone can write such things with impunity. There exists the risk that they may act them out,” Maroni added.
Earlier, the head of the main centre-left opposition Democratic Party, Dario Franceschini - himself a target on Facebook - said he favoured shutting down the anti-Berlusconi site.
Maroni’s announcement came a day after Justice Minister Angelino Alfano said that he was “deeply disturbed”, by the “dangerous threats” made against Berlusconi on several groups and forums on Facebook.
A Facebook search on Thursday revealed the existence of dozens of anti-Berlusconi groups, written mostly in Italian.
These included one called: “Let’s kill Berlusconi by bludgeoning or stoning him to death”, made up of over 300 members.
In contrast, another group made up of some 1,400 members and called “Please let’s not kill Berlusconi”, contained a retouched photograph making the billionaire-turned-politician appear in a Christ-like pose.
The row is not the first involving Facebook and Italian authorities, who have condemned postings by groups supporting the Sicilian mafia.
These have included those calling for the release from jail of Cosa Nostra boss Toto Riina, who is serving multiple life sentences for murder and other crimes.
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