Italy’s Supreme Court to Rule on Prosecutorial Immunity

The case centers on the fallout from a high-profile bribery trial involving oil giants Shell and Eni. Prosecutors Fabio de Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro were convicted after failing to disclose an undercover video during a $1.1bn investigation into the OPL 245 offshore Nigerian oil field. Although the defendants were acquitted in 2021, the prosecutors were subsequently charged with professional misconduct, despite evidence that the video was already in the defense's possession.

Legal experts, including former Supreme Court attorney general Nello Rossi, have criticized the convictions as relying on illogical reasoning that contradicts established precedents. The precedent poses a direct challenge to Article 53 of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure, which guarantees prosecutors full autonomy. Since the convictions, international corruption investigations in Italy have dropped sharply, as officials fear that good-faith decisions regarding case files could render them targets for litigation by the very interests they are investigating.

This legal shift has triggered alarm within the OECD Working Group on Bribery, which previously flagged the acquittal as inconsistent with international conventions. If the Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s stance, the decision may signal a broader retreat from anti-corruption enforcement. By criminalizing the professional judgment required to manage complex evidentiary documents, the Italian judiciary risks creating a environment where corrupt actors can successfully weaponize the legal system against their investigators.