Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice

Italian Minister of Justice

This is a list of Italian Ministers of Justice since 1946.-External links:* *...

 in the third Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 government of Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...

, he is a Senator

Italian Senate

The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...

 and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.

Career

Born in Lecco

Lecco

Lecco is a town of c. 47,760 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan, the capital of the province of Lecco. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como...

 (Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

), Castelli is an engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

, and has been in politics with the Northern League

Northern League (Italy)

Lega Nord , whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania , is a federalist and regionalist political party in Italy founded in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties of Northern and Central Italy, most of which had arisen...

 since 1986. In 1992, Castelli was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies

Italian Chamber of Deputies

The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...

, and he was confirmed in 1994. Since 1996 he sits in Senate of Republic

Italian Senate

The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...

, and for two years (1999–2001) he was chairman of parliamentary group of the Northern League in the Senate, as he is now.
On 2010 mid-term elections he run as mayor of his home town but he was defeated.

Minister of Justice

In fall 2004, he completed a highly controversial reform of the judiciary, but initially President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...

, even though he had been pressured by Castelli to do so, refused to sign the bill. The law was passed again in spring 2005.

As a minister, he refused to sign President Ciampi's decision to pardon

Pardon

Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...

 Adriano Sofri

Adriano Sofri

Adriano Sofri is an Italian intellectual, a journalist and a writer.Former leader of the autonomist movement Lotta Continua in the 1960s, he was arrested in 1988 and convicted to 22 years of prison, having been found guilty of being the instigator of the murder of Luigi Calabresi, a police...

, 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

Constitution of Italy

The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947...

), 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

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 who were implicated in the kidnapping and torture of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr , also known as Abu Omar, is an Egyptian cleric. In 2003 he was living in Milan, Italy, from where he was kidnapped and allegedly later tortured in Egypt. This "Imam rapito affair" prompted a series of investigations in Italy, culminating in the criminal convictions of...

.