Contestazione suppletiva di aggravante valutativa: quando il p.m. abusa del processo

Supplementary contestation of evaluative aggravating circumstances: when the public prosecutor abuses the process

The essay analyses an Italian Supreme Court decision, sentenced on July 2024, concerning the limits imposed to the Prosecutor in amending the indictment during the trial, in particular when he charges the accused with a supplementary aggravating circumstance that makes the offence prosecutable ex officio and no longer on complaint by the victim. The issue is particularly topical, considering that Legislative Decree no. 150 of 2022 (Cartabia reform) amended the procedural regime for certain criminal offences, at the same time providing that the three-month time limit for filing a complaint would start to run again from the entry into force of the reform. The Court, in the judgment annotated herein, sentenced that the Prosecutor may not charge the defendant with new aggravating circumstances when this serves the sole purpose of prosecuting the offence ex officio in the absence of a complaint. In such a case, in fact, the prosecutor would commit an abuse of process.