For more than five years, Italian-Brazilians recognized as Italians jure sanguinis They were prevented from exercising their rights in the municipality of Augusta, in Sicily, extreme south of Italy, due to an administrative blockade following corruption scandals involving public officials.
The measure froze all citizenship processes, even those not directly related to criminal investigations.
Rights suspended
Descendants of Italians born in Brazil were unable to obtain passports or register with AIRE. (Registration of Italians Residing Abroad)access to consular services and voting in Italian and European elections. The suspension was applied indiscriminately, affecting even those who had no connection whatsoever with the illegal acts.
According to the lawyer Francesco LiguoriAccording to the lawyer defending several affected Italian-Brazilians, the legal requirements for citizenship were fully met and could not have been ignored.
In an interview with Italianism, this Monday (15)Liguori emphasized that "the first instance ruling and the appeal ruling of the Court of Catania never called into question the legitimacy of the acts that underpin Italian citizenship."
Clear rules and documentation
Regarding the documents presented in the proceedings, Liguori stated that adjustments were possible as long as they were properly justified.
“We agreed that if doubts arose about the family tree, they could be resolved with specific explanations, provided they were proven with adequate documentation,” he said.
The previous case served as a basis.
Liguori also recalled a precedent from 2019. At the time, the Italian consulate in Cologne denied a passport to an Italian-Brazilian citizen with recognized citizenship in the comune of Floridia, the same province as Augusta, another location marked by scandals.
"I challenged the consular decree with the..." Lazio Regional Administrative Court"The decision was annulled because it was based solely on opinions and not on legal grounds. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was ordered to pay the costs, and the passport was returned to the citizen," he reported.
Legal and political victory
The lifting of the ban in Augusta ends a period of uncertainty and reinforces that Italian citizenship is a right of origin, not a state concession.
Among those represented by the lawyer are business owners in the food sector in Germany and engineers working in Ireland and Pakistan, highlighting the global impact of the measure.
The decision gains weight amid recent changes to citizenship rules and increasing bureaucracy in Italian consulates and municipalities.
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