(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 10 - The president of the Magistratura Democratica left-wing faction in the judiciary's union, Silvia Albano, one of the judges who nixed the detention of the first group of migrants taken to a new Italian-run facility in Albania, said on Sunday she did not want to clash with the cabinet after the controversial sentence was slammed by leading government members last month.
    "I have no intention of seeking a clash with the government, it is the government that wants to clash with me and I want to avoid it", Albano said on the sidelines of the congress in Rome of Magistratura Democratica, one of the factions within the National Association of Magistrates (ANM).
    "There has been an insufferable personalization.
    "There are judges who are trying to do their jobs and a unanimous opinion has been expressed by all communities of jurists, from the Union of criminal chambers", which represents Italian criminal lawyers, to "the associations of professors of European Union law: they have all said nothing can be done on the primacy of European legislation", said Albano, who was assigned a security detail after receiving death threats in the wake of the ruling.
    Albano was among six judges who did not validate the detention of the first group of migrants taken to Albania, stating that their countries of provenance - Bangladesh and Egypt - could not be considered safe based on an October 4 ruling of the European Court of Justice.
    The Rome court's ruling on October 18, which led to the migrants being taken back to Italy from the newly opened centre, was slammed by leading government members including Justice Minister Carlo Nordio who described it as "abnormal" and said judges had failed to fully understand the meaning of the European court's sentence because it was very complex and "written in French".
    After the ruling, the government on October 21 approved a new decree listing 19 countries, including Egypt and Bangladesh, as safe, saying courts cannot rule against it on the basis of the European Court of Justice's decision.
    The immigration section of Rome's tribunal is scheduled to decide on Monday whether to validate the detention of the second group of seven migrants - also citizens of Egypt and Bangladesh - who were taken to the Italian-run centre in Albania by Italian Navy vessel Libra last Friday.
    Meanwhile on Sunday, Nordio expressed the hope that members of the judiciary will cease to criticize the "political nature" of laws and that policy makers will "tone it down" in criticizing sentences, addressing via video link the congress of the faction chaired by Albano.
    "We want dialogue with the judiciary because we know that magistrates are called to implement laws.
    "Another problem is criticism of the political nature and content of laws once they have been approved and (President Sergio) Mattarella has been very clear about this", noted Nordio.
    "I hope that, in future dialogues, there will be increasingly less criticism from members of the judiciary on the political merit of laws in Parliament and that politicians will tone it down in criticizing sentences", said Nordio.
    The leader of the League party, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, said in a post published on X on Sunday that some judges who "boycott" laws instead of applying them should "get into politics with the Refounded Communists".
    The post was published with a photo of Magistratura Democratica President Silvia Albano.
    "Those judges, luckily a few, who instead of applying laws twist them and boycott them, should have the dignity to resign, to change jobs and get into politics with the Refounded Communists", wrote Salvini.
    "They are a problem for Italy", said the League leader.
    Meanwhile, at Magistratura Democratica's congress, the chairman of the National Association of Magistrates (ANM), Giuseppe Santalucia, said he was worried that a controversy between members of the government and the judiciary sparked by court rulings not validating the detention of asylum seekers could be reignited by future sentences.
    Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, he noted that a resurgence of the controversy wouldn't benefit anyone and expressed trust that the rulings issued so far "can be read, understood".
    "It is possible to dissent or not, the word will now go to the Court of Cassation and the (European Court) of Justice but there is no intention of politicization or of igniting a clash with political forces" said Santalucia, replying to a question concerning potential future scenarios following Rome's ruling.
    The decision was appealed by the interior ministry to the Cassation Court.
    Since the new government decree listing 19 safe countries for repatriation was approved on October 21, two courts, one in Bologna and another one in Palermo, have referred it with another decree regulating accelerated border procedures to the European Court of Justice to ask which parameter should be used when determining safety and whether the principle of the primacy of EU law should prevail if a conflict arises with Italian legislation.
    On Sunday, Santalucia also said the climate between the judiciary and politicians had worsened since the governments of late three-time premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi.
    The ANM president noted that, previously, only prosecutors were slammed as 'red judicial robes', or allegedly partisan left-leaning magistrates, while "today the red judicial robes are everywhere, even in civil courts dealing with immigration".
    (ANSA).