Große Aufregung in der britischen Öffentlichkeit, dass der 26jährige Learco Chindamo, der im Alter von 6 Jahren nach England kam, nicht nach Italien deportiert werden kann.

I don’t usually comment on hot issues, but I find this really bizarre. How can so many people think it’s disgusting not to be able to return someone to Italy even though he has lived in Britain most of his life and doesn’t speak Italian? And I haven’t even been reading the ‘gutter press’. Chindamo will not be released if he is shown to be a danger to the public; if he is released, it will be on licence, so that he can be returned to prison.

Here’s the original story from Wikipedia:

The Wo-Sing-Wo gang, which was mainly Filipino, aspired to be a junior version of the Triads. Twelve of the gang’s members, led by 15-year old Learco Chindamo, a pupil at another school who claimed to be a Triad member, went to St. George’s school on 8 December 1995, to “punish” a 13-year old boy who had quarrelled with a Filipino pupil. Lawrence saw them attack the boy with an iron bar and went outside to remonstrate with the gang. Chindamo punched him and then stabbed him in the chest, and he died in hospital that evening.

Chindamo was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey in October 1996, after a unanimous decision by the jury, and jailed indefinitely (as he was a juvenile at the time). He has always claimed that he was the victim of mistaken identity, and that the real killer was another boy who had borrowed his jacket, although he does not deny that he was present.

Here’s the Independent on the subject:

Upon his release (he is eligible for parole next year), the Home Office wants him to be deported to Italy, a country he has not lived in since he was five. But a court has ruled that this would breach European law.
The decision provoked outrage among the Lawrence family, ministers and the Conservative Party, whose leader, David Cameron, described the case as “a glaring example of what is going wrong in our country”.

How can so many people expect something so ridiculous? (There is more to the story, but it doesn’t change my point). No doubt it will all be blamed on the EU as usual.

EUlawblog comments on an OpenEurope press release which sees this as revealing problems in the EU harmonization of justice and home affairs. And here’s another analysis of the Daily Mail version of the story.