An Italian court has cleared mafia bestseller "Gomorrah" author and journalist Roberto Saviano of defamation charges brought by far-right deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, his lawyer said Friday.
Saviano was acquitted Thursday over a 2018 social media post in which he called Salvini the "minister of the criminal underworld".
Saviano had said Salvini ignored mafia wars taking place in Calabria, southern Italy, as interior minister, and instead focused on cracking down on migrants working in the region's farming sector.
The judge ruled that Saviano had committed no crime, upholding the author’s defence of legitimately exercising his right to political and cultural criticism.
"This ruling was really important because it shifts attention towards the necessity of the freedom to criticise those in power," Saviano said.
Saviano's lawyer Antonio Nobile told AFP that the outcome was "far from a foregone conclusion", referring to previous defamation allegations brought against him by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
In 2023, Saviano was fined 1,000 euros for criticising Meloni’s stance on migrants and calling the then leader of the opposition a "bastard" on national television in 2020.
Salvini, leader of Italy’s Lega party, vowed to sue the author again.
“As interior minister, I fought the Mafia, the Camorra, and the 'Ndrangheta," he said.
"It seems obvious to me that some judges are ideologically aligned,” he said during a phone interview with Rai talk show Ore 14 Sera.
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