Stop those voices from talking

Silencing dissenters by force.

Do SAS and Anti-cults Forum abuse law enforcement agencies to prevent freedom of thought and expression of those who dissent from their works?

For decades now, the so-called “anti-cults” groups are conducting a social scaremongering campaign on the alleged “danger of cults”. It hasn’t been always like that, in the little catholic Italy of the after-war years up to for the most of 1970s there was almost no talk of cults.

The rupture happened in 1981 with the judgement NR. 69 of Constitutional Court that abolished the fascist crime of mental manipulation [“plagio”, Translator’s note]. A judgement of validity performed by a roman judge during a penal proceeding against the catholic priest Father Emilio Grasso, accused by some parents of having committed mental manipulation of their underage children. Later on Emilio Grasso, founder and soul of the Redemptor Homis Community (www.missionerh.it) that he still manages nowadays, was absolved and exonerated from all the accusations.

This doesn’t mean that before that date there was no religious intolerance and that there weren’t prosecutions against religious thought alternative to the catholic thought that was reigning. But at the time and beginning along time ago, Italy was fulsomely catholic and, in spite of the republican constitution, the roman Church was acting like a state religion, so it was enough for it to repress the “cult deviations” and to keep those that had the pretense to invoke the freedom of thought and of religion, in their places (in ghettos)e.

To give an example of the mood “before-anti-cults” described before, we will recycle a quotation appeared in between the comments of Agenzia Radicale and taken by the Jesuit magazine Civiltà Cattolica of 1887:

“[…] Judaism is no longer a religion. Except for some old man and some ignorant women, since the Hebrew women know about religion nothing (absolutely nothing), with those exceptions, Hebrews of some stature don’t worship other God than money. There is not a religious belief, it’s a commercial society…”.

Besides this, the “anti-cults” activity wasn’t something common up to the 1980s. After the Constitutional Court’s judgement the first “anti-cults” associations were born, and started right away to complain about presumed “missing laws” and to demand the reintroduction of the mental manipulation crime.

But in the 1980s and most of the 1990s the Italian “anti-cults” associations were still quite clumsy, not decent and not credible. There were few little groups like ARIS Nazionale and ARIS Veneto, composed of violent people with no specific competence. People who were guilty of criminal actions like kidnapping and physical and psychological violence (see “Anti-Cults Forum and kidnappings – part I”, “part II”, “part III”).

There was even the “anti-cults” catholic group GRIS (Group of Research and Information on Cults), widespread through all the national area, but involved almost exclusively, at least at that time, in fighting against Jehovah Witnesses.

The rest of the “anti-cults” business was so secondary and isolated to few people that were mostly referring to GRIS or ARIS.

This description doesn’t have any pretense to be a scientific particularized and precise dissertation, yet it is a fact that in the end of 1990s and in the first years of new millennium various “anti-cults” associations were born and are still alive. Those are micro-groups handled by few people mainly without any qualification, but the coming of the Internet and the complacency of non-scrupulous reporters made their visibility easier.

Those groups, as we’ll see later on, during the years, fine-tuned and polished a new method and a more organized and pernicious structure to conduct the campaign against the “cults”.

In the second half of 1990s the representatives of the”anti-cults” groups infiltrated in the institutions and they became “consultants” of Ministry of Interiors, of some police forces and of secret services.

Contacts between police and “anti-cults” happened even before, particularly with representatives of DIGOS (Investigative Police Division), that at the time was dealing with the so-called “sectarism”, but those contacts were neither organized nor spread through all the national area.

The new deal

The beginning of collaboration with central authorities started a new deal and new level of influence, culminating to, at the eve of the 2000 Jubilee, the infamous report of Internal Minister on “Religious cults and new magic movements in Italy” (see “State Alarmism”).

In 2006, with the coming of SAS (Anti Cults Squad, Minister of Interiors), founded by the Police Head of that time, Gianni de Gennaro (see “Anti-Cults Squad” and “Anti Cults Team and Constitution”), the relationships between the “anti-cults” groups and the State have been made institutional. Some of the representatives of those “anti-cults” micro-groups were even officially appointed by the SAS as privileged referents to take information on religious movements indiscriminately considered “cults”.

The principal of those privileged referents is the catholic priest don Aldo Buonaiuto, with an evident conflict of interest. See “Anti-cults team, anti-cults groups and mental manipulation” and “The referents of SAS”.

With this new layout, the SAS and the various “anti-cults”, starting from Buonaiuto and Anti-cults Forum, implemented a perverted mechanism, much more efficient than the one implemented by groups that were operating without the endorsement of authorities of 1980s and 1990s

The endorsement received from SAS, and even just the existence of such a police force, according to us unconstitutional, made it easier for “anti-cults” to contact media and politicians and, as a consequence, some storm-trooper judges.

SAS, “anti-cults” groups, journalists, politics and judges, are the components of a mechanism that allows to gather raw and non-verified information making them a sort of official, and so pushing for sues and anonymous reports, orchestrating journalistic campaigns, instigating the beginnin of judiciary processes and, in the meantime, making a more pressing request to reintroduce the mental manipulation crime in our set of laws.

With such a mechanism working, even the groups not officially cooperating with SAS, and even single individuals that wanted to unload their hostility towards any movement that could be arbitrarily called “cult”, find a prolific field to contribute to the “anti-cults” campaign.

To mention just a couple of the many instances occurred, the incident of the presumed “psycho-cult” Arkeon, analyzed in various articles of the blog http://pensieribanali.wordpress.com, and the one of MISA Yoga, described in the article “MISA Yoga, Anticults Forum and SAS”, demonstrate how the mechanism described above, activated by the alerting and false information spread by “anti-cults”, can conduct to a demonization of any group and mount false processes based on nothing.

There are a lot of incidents that cost millions and millions of Euros to the government treasury and that caused sufferings and incalculable damages to hundreds of people that saw their lives ruined tanks to the unpunished works of those gossip people.

The cure for the dissenters

Such new layout of the “anti-cults” congregation, made it also possible to create new effects that weren’t thinkable before. In 1980s and 1990s the front of “anti-cults” was beveled and litigious, but the results of those contrasts reduced to the simple disunion.

However with the new layout, when the “anti-cults” groups, and especially the Anti-cults Forum representing the SAS, have contrasts with colleagues or ex-friends not aligned with the official strategy of this congregation, they don’t just argue, but they save for them, the same treatment used for the “cults”: they spread anonymous sues, unleash the press, then, with the help of the SAS itself, they present “piloted” actions  and instigate farcical judiciary processes against them.

Let’s see in details how this method is executed to shut up the dissenting voices.

A couple of weeks ago Agenzia Radicale published an article entitled “Persecution and anti-cults campaigns: interview to Raffaella di Marzio”.

In the article/interview Drs. Di Marzio informed that she asked to be canceled from the Roll of psychologists. She explained that she came to that decision due to a series of manufactured complaints filed against her since she had subscribed to the Roll three years before. Complaint that, as we’ll see in the following, came from representatives of Anti-cults Forum. Instead of defending her from those manufactured exposes, the Roll accepted the adversary thesis and forced her to defend herself repeatedly from charges that were clearly unfounded.

For the most of 1990s Drs. Di Marzio was a committed and active representative of GRIS. Later on, she distanced from GRIS for some contrasts and she developed contacts and partnerships with representatives of other “anti-cults” associations, including those that today form the Anti-cults Forum.

Following some accidents, the scholar verified that her idea of “research and study” was quite different from the one of the components of the cult or associations that she came to know. Se realized that the “study and research on cults or new religious movements” from the so-called “anti-cults” groups always reduced to the demonization of those movements, systematically searching and fabricating alarming stories that could be used to publish on gossip press, promoting judicial actions mostly unfounded and so demanding the reintroduction of the crime of mental manipulation and/or mental manipulation.

Basically Drs. Di Marzio found the mechanism that we just described above and she didn’t share it. She preferred to study the groups considered “cults” in a true way, to understand them and debate. She reached this conviction, modifying an approach that was more extremist previously, after observing that not all the so-defined “cults” were such, and that too many times respectable spiritual and religious experiences were assaulted without even being known.

Her way to observe and operate was (and is) not well accepted from the “anti-cults” associations, that completely exclude any dialogue and contact with those groups that they invariably consider “cults” destructive, criminal, coercing and to be erased.

For such “heavy sin” Drs. Di Marzio received anonymous sues, complaints, submissions to the Roll of psychologists and she’s been subjected to attacks on Interned and media.

In 2008, while she was conducting a research on Arkeon group, Di Marzio found herself unwillingly involved in an investigation that the Bari public prosecutor's office was conducting against this movement provoked by the CeSAP association, which had been conducting for a while an aggressive mediatic campaign against Arkeon.

This happening is well summarized in a very recent article signed by Di Marzio and published on the CESNUR website with the title “The confessions of the ‘monster at the mirror’, Arkeon, anti-cults associations and the Roll of Psicologists: a personal experience”.

At that point, the mechanism of “elimination of the dissenters and the not-aligned” usually executed by the Anti-cults Forum got into action. Gabriella Monaco, representative of the invisible "Cominato Vittime Psico-sette" (Committee of Victims of the Pyxho-cults) sponsored by CeSAP, sent a fax to the public prosecutor Francesco Bretone in Bari denouncing that Di Marzio, defined “scholar” quote and quote, was doing a “worrying promotion of the Arkeon method”, that she was “near Moccia” (the “guru” of the “cult”) that operated a “systematic discouragement of the victims”, that due to her, “key depositions are neutralized and returned to the fold” (to the “cult”).

In the fax it was suggested that Di Marzio was devoted “to the contamination of testimonial evidences”, and that she was doing activity of “obstruction of justice”, that she was in league with the investigated and that she was in a certain way part of the “cult”.

“Dear Dr. Bretone, I write you to inform about a very serious fact that happened on forum www.dimarzio.it, of which I already wrote informing you of the worrying promotion ot the Arkeon method from this “scholar” near Moccia, that was even present at the meeting of 9th of february in Rome , and her systematic discouragement of the victims that sometimes, if they talk in a critical way, are even expelled. Now it happened what we were fearing, that is that even the key depositions are neutralized and returned to the fold…. The man that attended “Mi Manda Rai Ttre” that deposed even in the civil process under judge Michele Salvatore about the horrendous physical and psychological abuses suffered, has been discouraged and he wrote that he wants to “rephrase” his deposition even with authorities. What happened after receiving messages very dishonorable, from Di Marzio and promoters and teachers, in response to the story of his experience very dramatic (he even said about induction to suicide committed against him during the seminars from his teacher….): those messages flew over such things, while they convinced him manifestly guilt-feelings inviting him “not to feel resentment or revenge since that would destroy him, even before his teacher”. This woman, strong for her position and her degree in psychology (she’s not a psychologist and she can’t exercise that profession, but she doesn’t clarify the event in that sense) after she accepted that on her forum somebody said many times that the inquisitors were conspiring against Moccia, and she herself said things of such seriousness , and she keeps using this showcase as if it was the official Arkeon website and she gets to the point of suggesting to the victims that deposing the truth wasn’t a civic duty to help justice but a symptom of wish of payback, absolutely to be avoided. I recommend you that on this argument, the “process” against the teacher, the victims of Arkeon are very sensible and manipulatable, being at the base of the method and effective to the creation of a total sense of subjection just the unconditional entrustment in the teacher: any critic is symptom of a “process” unresolved against him. In effect, after few hours the message seems completely contradictory compared to the one before, talks about not wanting to make a mess (who said to him that deposing the truth gets into trouble?), about not wanting to send someone into jail because he has a self-destruction instinct that made him damage himself and that maybe what happened to him it’s his fault (   the promoter and wife of a teacher at the head of Arkeon wrote that to him ) I know that Di Marzio contacts privately the victims that write on her forum, even if she knows that a penal investigation is on course and so she should not interfere. I ask myself if, if other than messages published that seem very gravely discouraging… has been contacted privately from her or teachers: his change is terrible, seems scared or torn to pieces for the sense of guilty. They’re contacting even.., another penitent teacher that writes there and that we signaled to the inspector a while ago.. after that he asked help to CESAP. Isn’t it maybe a contamination of the testimonial proofs? Can’t be done something to stop this activity that obstructs justice? We’re worried , I and …: our lawyers are sure that 31st of March at Ancona there will be a commitment for trial, even if there’s the presentation of the ordinance . If to that we add that we’re witnessing with impotence this work of influence of depositions, you can easily understand our feelings. I don’t know if it is possible for you to contact PM in-charge of the file, and I excuse myself if my request seems inappropriate to you, but I ask you to understand our sense of distress and discouragement. Our proceedings go on and we don’t know how to pay for the lawyers: I beg you to do all possible to make the truth be seen so we can protect ourselves, we’ve done just our duty to avoid that other victims get to the clutches of those criminals, we can’t pay a so high price for this. I attach the last post of ---  and I tell you that I can send you the messages that I just synthetically wrote here. I thank you for your time and I wait for your news.
PS: I send a fax because my internet connection is not working. If you have urgency to contact me you can find me at…..”

Obviously the interested person, Drs. Di Marzio, was totally unknowing of those accusations and various similar warnings that CeSAP components were doing to the investigating judge.

Due to those anonymous charges, Drs. Di Marzio was investigated for criminal association and her website was seized; three years later, in March 2011 she was released from the charges.

Basically all the deductions and charges contained in the previous letter and in the various warnings from CeSAP were considered unfounded as notices of crime. But who paid the damages from such persecution? CeSAP? Its president Drs. Lorita Tinelli? Obviously nobody.

The trial against Arkeon finished on July 16th, 2012, with a decision that released the accused from all the violations that depicted them as a “dangerous psycho-cult”. The only conviction was about the abuse of psychologist profession, that doesn’t have anything to do with the charges of fraud, violence, take advantage of a disabled person and abuses, so beloved to the Anti-cults Forum. The public prosecutor's office didn’t contest the releases, so at this point the decision is confirmed and definitive.

In the light of this decision, the accusations and anonymous charges against Drs. Di Marzio, done to shut her up, result even more unfounded and ignominious.

The case of Drs. Di Marzio is not the only one. Just about that same time when Drs. Tinelli instigated the public prosecutor Bretone against Di Marzio, Tinelli put into action the same joke against another scholar of religious movements who wasn’t complying with the “cultifying” strategy against Arkeon ordered by Anti-cults Forum and SAS, Drs. Silvana Radoani.

In her case, too, Drs. Tinelli sent a “cautionary warning” by fax to the Prosecutor Francesco Bretone, of course with a copy for the President of the Roll of Psychologists of Puglia, Dr. Giuseppe Lugi Palma, plus one for the President of the Roll of Psychologists of Emilia-Romagna, Drs. Manuela Colombari.

The whole document can be viewed and downloaded here.

After such “cautionary warning” (to safeguard who and from what?), Drs. Tinelli continued her attempted demolition of Drs. Radoani by filing several other complaints against Drs. Radoani, as she herself reported and proved on her site radoani.ilcannocchiale.it.

The continuous work of “anti-cults” to neutralize these counter-voices wasn’t limited to anonymous warnings sent to Dr. Bretone or complaints in general. On the contrary – meanwhile the inquiries stirred up by the warnings of CeSAP were going nowhere and the site of Drs. Di Marzio was under seizure, Drs. Tinelli of CeSAP made jokes about the situation and diffused in the Internet the false accuse that Drs. Di Marzio was “a guru inside a cult.”.

“Who knows what would Maroni say if he knew that one of the organizers of the congress (the only one in Italy :))) ) is under investigation for criminal association and abuse of profession, and also a guru inside a cult!!!!”

In this e-mail of hers, Drs. Tinelli was talking about a congress of ICSA  (International Cultic Studies Association) titled “New cults and sects in the society: preventing, informing, assisting” held in Rome on 18 and 19 September 2010, in which Drs. Di Marzio would partake. Achille Aveta had informed the Anti-cults Forum that the Minister of Interiors (that time), Roberto Maroni, had been invited.

Afterwards the Forum committed to spread the news among the politicians and journalists, that a “person under investigation for criminal association” would be a speaker in the congress.

But the anti-Di Marzio campaign wasn’t limited to anonymous complaints and spreading defaming news by e-mail. The harassment and bothering also included messages of the Anti-cults Forum sent under a nickname to the blog of Drs. Di Marzio to challenge what she wrote. The following was anonymously sent by Emanuela Fontana, vice-president of ARIS Toscana, just while Drs. Di Marzio was acquitted by the Court of Bari.

“8 March 2011
“Dear Drs. Di Marzio, I found your theses really astonishing, as well as some comments on your speech.
“But as I want to understand your thesis well:
“Is this link included as an example of what you mean by terror-makers liable of undue alarm? [link]
“So you think there is a hidden conspiracy to make the mass media diffuse a problem that doesn’t exist? But who would want this? Who would be interested in it?
“If I remember well, Dr. Santovecchi is an ex member, too, she tells herself in the video, she participated to the Icsa congress, too, should we include her in the ‘alarm-makers’ as well?
“What is the evidence of the conspiracy? If your conclusions are exact, specify them.”

Another one, here below, she sent to the same blog using the e-mail of her daughter Elena.

“I inform you that I wrote a comment to rdm [Raffaella Di Marzio, Translator’s note], currently awaiting for approval..it already happened in the past that she didn’t approve an anonymous comment of mine, while on the contrary when it was slightly modified it was issued, you can find it on the LA7 blog. Now I used my daughter elena’s email, what do you say will she approve it? Let’s bet…”

“elena – in the TV show of 29 feb prof. Di Marzio made statements on mental manipulation and conditioning:
“'’we have no scientific instruments to gauge the degree of mental manipulation performed on a person.”’
“But by what criteria does she state right after:
“‘there are several degrees of mental manipulation
“’1 attempted persuasion
“’2 various intermediate levels
“’3 maximum level’?
“If according to Di Marzio a minimum-maximum level of manipulation exists, how did she manage to establish? And what are the consequences one would undergo between minimum and maximum?
“According to Di Marzio, what were the scientific and legislative instruments to gauge stalking?
“For example:
“1 intrusive person
“2 various intermediate levels
“3 persecution
“Or did they use other scientific instruments? If so which??

Between the first and the second message one year passed, during which the “disturb actions” continued one by one with no interruption.

To be noticed that in her second message, Emanuela Fontana also reported about not being able to provide “cases” to the journalist David Murgia (the one of “Vade Retro”, the TV show of TV 2000 now suspended – we will cover this in the future). But how is it? The ARIS Toscana, Italian representative for the european FECRIS, who elsewhere stated “we receive hundreds of warning information letters on the part of cult victims,” had no cases to provide to a journalist asking for them?

Let’s go back to the matter of the muzzling of unwanted voices. We were reporting that in March 2011 Drs. Di Marzio was acquitted by the Court of Bari due to the inexistence of the charges CeSAP had brought against her.

But a few days later, Drs. Tinelli of CeSAP “revealed in a completely confidential form” to the components of Anti-cults Forum, that she was convened by the Roll of Psychologists of Lazio to provide “news on what happened with Raffaella Di Marzio”.

“In a completely confidential form I am telling you that the Roll of Psychologists of Lazio, the roll in which Di Marzio is a member, has convened me for next month to get news on what happened with Raffaella Di Marzio, who became a member of their Roll last year, 20 years after grading in psychology and after the inquiry on her on the part of the Prosecutor of Bari. Once again I’m being called to play the hard role of person informed about facts.”

With a high hypocrisy Drs. Tinelli states, “Once again I’m being called to play the hard role of person informed about facts.” A role she could definitely stay clear of, if it hadn’t been that on 5 may 2010 she herself filed a complaint with the Roll of Psychologists of Lazio against Drs. Di Marzio.

It is worth to notice that the Roll of Lazio hadn’t yet informed Drs. Di Marzio about the measures they were going to take against her, meanwhile listening to Drs. Tinelli to integrate her complaint with news about “the inquiry of the Prosecutor of Bari.” But that inquiry, on the date of the convening of Drs. Tinelli, was seeing Drs. Di Marzio acquitted from all charges.

The members of Anti-cults Forum later filed two more complaints with the Roll of Psychologists of Lazio against Drs Di Marzio.

After Drs. Tinelli, also Maurizio Alessandrini, president of FAVIS and privileged representative of the SAS, filed a complaint; moreover, according to the following emails, he seemed to have some acquaintance with the president of the National Roll of Psychologists Dr. Giuseppe Luigi Palma (previously the president of the Roll of Puglia, which entered the lawsuit against Arkeon).

“(20 nov 2011) In a few hours our complaint to the Roll of Psychologists of Lazio will be routed, by one-day Fast Legal Letter, so it will very soon be on the desk of their president Dr. Palma.
We’ll see if she will still have very much time for her current sports.”

“(21 nov 2011) My complaint against the psychologist Di Marzio is ready.
It will be routed tomorrow by one-day Fast Legal Letter, so it will very soon be on the desk of the Lazio Roll.
I’d like so much to see how the face of ‘Mrs. Villainy’… when she’ll be summoned by the Roll.”

“(21 nov 2011) Confidential - my complaint against the psychologist Di Marzio is ready.
The complaint to the Roll of Psychologists of Lazio is in my name, so it is absolutely confidential until I will get a response from the Roll.”

Alessandrini wrote in the final part of his complaint, that his intent was to protect the so-called “victims of cults” from the “confusion” created by the “reiterated attitude on the part of” Drs. Di Marzio.

"To finish with, such attitude, reiterated in time on the part of Di Marzio and also supported by some well-organized cultic groups, is creating much confusion and damage amongst the victims of the so-called abusing cults as well as amongst the plaintiffs of the trials already going in which members of organizations considered cultic are under charges. Drs. Di Marzio herself became a representative of some of those groups, also accepting a role as witness for defendants, although she was acquainted with a specific policy of the Roll she is a member of, against those defendants, as it results from the deeds of the criminal proceeding NR. 6445/06 RGNR at the Court of Bari. Moreover, to this complaint I will attach a DVD containing a speech of the National Roll of Psychologists President Dr. Giuseppe Luigi Palma, within the TV show ‘Mi manda RAI Tre’ of 13 October 2006 (viewable on the web page http://vimeo.com/17949005. To finish with, such continuous denigration of the work of our organizations and consequently of the professionals who work in them and cooperate with them, risks to make our work of listening, support and shelter, harder and harder.

Rimini, 21 November 2011”

As a matter of fact, the jeering mood of the above emails, makes it plain that the complaint was just aiming at shutting Drs. Di Marzio’s mouth, not protecting someone from alleged abuses.

Warnings, complaints, reports to police, harassment, are not just all spontaneous reactions of a group of intolerant “anti-cults”. The most persecutory of these actions are the results of an operating line agreed upon and coordinated with the SAS principals.

Since the establishment of SAS which occurred on 2 November 2006, the Anti-cults Forum had relations with the chief of that time Drs. Tiziana Terribile, afterwards replaced by Drs. Maria Carla Bocchino.

On 21 September 2007 all the representatives of the organizations comprising the Forum: Lorita Tinelli (CeSAP), Maurizio Alessandrini (FAVIS), Milena Bolgan and Mario Martini (ARIS Veneto), Mario Pierotti, Emanuela Fontana and Maria Pia Gardini (ARIS Toscana), participated to a “strategic” meeting in Rome with Drs. Maria Carla Bocchino in the SAS seat, to work out an operating strategy. In that occasion Alessandrini was appointed as the SAS representative for the Anti-cults Forum.

Alessandrini worked in this role since then. In fact, here he is, informing “RUSH and CONFIDENTIAL” the other members of the Anti-cults Forum about having “just finished a 25-minutes phone call with the SAS chief, Drs. Maria Carla Bocchino”, with whom he went over the “Di Marzio issue” and how to deal with it.

“(28 oct 2011) URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL
“I have just finished a 25-minutes phone call with the SAS chief, Drs. Maria Carla Bocchino. From our conversation it came out: (…)
“B. In order to get investigative activities initiated on anonymous or covered sites, especially including Italian ones, we are advised to write a complaint (…)
“C. The complaint should be filed by the Forum with the Police of Rimini, Operative Team, Dr. Franco Vendramino Bortot, SAS representative.
“D. Once the complaint is filed, we can e-mail it to the SAS chief.”

So, to be sure they could “get investigative activities initiated,” Drs. Bocchino advised him to file a complaint and route it to the “Police of Rimini, Operative Team, Dr. Franco Vendramino Bortot, SAS representative,” then to “e-mail it to the SAS chief.”

Such initiatives, as the following e-mail shows, they had already coordinated with Drs. Bocchino. 

“(28 oct 2011) Subject: additional note for the Forum’s REPORT to Senate and SAS
“Drs. Bocchino is already acquainted with this initiative.”

The “additional note for the Forum’s REPORT to Senate and SAS” they are writing about, is covered in our article “Anonymous Complaints”.

In these e-mails below, the members of the Anti-cults Forum agreed how the complaint should be edited as agreed with Drs. Bocchino, in order to make it “effective.”

“(29 oct 2011) Subject: R: additional note for the Forum’s REPORT to Senate and SAS
“Totally fine to me.
“The complaint we’ll work out from the same documents, or maybe we need to broaden the whole activity of defamation and slander done in these years by other subjects, too?”

“(3 nov 2011) Subject: Re: additional note of the Forum
“Certainly Lorita,
“The complaint will be a résumé of the three letters already sent (…)”

As it seems, the Anti-cults Forum members, didn’t just receive help and suggestions on how to silence the unwanted voices, but were also passed information on the progresses of the inquiries against the persons under investigation.

“(29 oct 2011) Subject: R: additional note for the Forum’s REPORT to Senate and SAS
“From the inquiry which is still going I found that behind the COVILT site there were Po, Radoani, Caparesi and Bono. (…)
“Then there were also assessments on Di Marzio, but about this I have no more information because the inquiry is still going. (…)
“Considering that this is inquiry materials, I wouldn’t mention this. (…)”

Eventually the complaint agreed upon with Drs. Bocchino was filed, as she suggested, with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rimini and signed by Maurizio Alessandrini. Here is an excerpt of it (English translation at the bottom):

Court of Rimini
to the Prosecutor's office at the Court of Rimini

and for knowledge to

Deputy Public Prosecutor
℅ Court of Bari
Dr. Francesco Bretone
Via Naziariantz, 1
70100 Bari

Ministry OF Interior State Police
DAC - S.C.O. - Executive Team anti - Sects
Via Tuscolana, 1558
00173 ROMA

President of the Justice Commission of the Senate
Via degli Straderari, 4
00186 ROMA

The undersigned MAURIZIO ALESSANDRINI, born the 8th of Nov. 1947 at Rimini (Rn) and resident in Via Torricella Feltria 2, married and retired person; President for the time being of FA.VI.S. (National Association Relatives of Sect Victims) and spokesman of " Foum of the Italian Associations of Research, Information and Contrast of Sects Movements and of Abusers Cults" phone number 0541.726104 mobile 328.5665202; e-mail maurizioalessandrini@libero.it

with the official complaint, proposes LAWSUIT - COMPLAINT

 towards all those that for whatever reason,from the reading of this, have harmed the dignity of persons or groups,offending, slandering and vilifying with falsities, asking expressly right now, the punishment provided by regulations.

HAVING SAID

- that the association called FAVIS non-profit organization, is regularly registered with n. 725 of the 9th Jan. 2003 in the Provincial Register of Rimini in the Volunteer Associations for the Promotion and the Protection of Rights ( L.R. 37/96)NOT FOR PROFIT and DOESN'T RECEIVE STATE GRANTS OF  ANY SORT. ( ANNEX 1/a

constitutive Act and associative Statute; ANNEX 2/a Registration to the Provincial Register to the Volunteering.);

- that the aforementioned association Favis is effective member of FECRIS - European Federation of the Research  Centers of Information on Sectarrianism - OING represented at the Council od Europe.;

- that by virtue of the activity held by the association,together with other realities associative that operate on the national territory within the same field of social intervention, the writer is referent secular on behalf of the aforementioned Forum,

at the Anti Sects Team (SAS) Interior Ministry, State Police DAC - SCO (Central Operative Service) at which the following complaint is sent as title of knowledge;

- that, in this case adhere at Forum the following associations: FAVIS (www.favis.org), CeSAP (www.cesap.org), ARIS Veneto; ARIS Tuscany; Off the hands on Children ( founded by Mr. Aldo VERDECCHIA),

- that the FAVIS association at a national level in the field of the promotion and protection of rights and is a family association self-financed, born principally to create a network of solidarity and mutual aid among those whose relatives have been enmeshed inside abuser organizations, it promotes information and offers defense relatively of fraud and at the abuse of sects and gurus, reporting to the competent authorities all those cases harmful to the individual rights, collaborating effectively with the police. It is finally committed to support the adoption of a law against the physiological and behavioral manipulation of the adepts of a sect; 

- that the Favis Association uses in its work, the advice of Dr. GIORGIO GAGLIARDI , psycho-physiologist doctor and psychotherapist, known as one of the most accredited italian experts of the sectary phenomenon as well as the cooperation of personalities of the scientific and academic world;

- that the hereby writer, in the area of its own associative activity has been among other things, invited as a speaker in conferences and seminars held in prestigious italian universities; (annex 3/a- 3/b- 3/d) 

- that in the year 2011 during the Year of the European Volunteering the Favis association has been awarded, by the Office Bureau of the legislative Assembly of Emilia Romagna Region a CERTIFICATE OF MERIT for the irreplaceable activity held at the service of the regional society; (annex 4/a)

EXPOSES AND REPRESENTS

- On the initiative parliamentary of the Senator ANTONINO CARUSO, on date 15th of May 2008, at the Senate was presented, the DDL 569 " Provisions concerning the crime of mental manipulation ", assigned to the 2nd standing Committee (Justice) at the reporting, 25th June 2008; (ANNEX N.1)

- Subsequently on date 21st September 2011,the aforementioned Committee proceeded to the first experts hearings within the "Fact.finding investigation on the phenomenon of the mental manipulation of weak subjects, with particular reference  to the phenomenon of the so-called "sects";

At that date were audited : Dr. MASSIMO INTROVIGNE ( CENSUR  Study Center on the New Religions), the Professor SILVIO CALZOLARI; Dr. RAFFAELLA DI MARZIO (SIPR Italian Society of Psychology of Religion); Dr. LORITA TINELLI ( CeSAP Study Center of Psychological Abuses); Dr. FELICE SCARINGELLA (CeSAP). On date 28th September 2011 was heard in the hearing Professor ANNA MARIA GIANNINI (Professor of Psychology at the University La Sapienza of Rome)and the writer MAURIZIO ALESSANDRINI (FAVIS National Association Relatives of sect  Victims)) 

The fact finding investigation continued in date 8 November 2011 with the hearings of the Professor ANTONIO PAGLIARO ( Emeritus professor of Criminal Law at the University of Palermo)and of the Dr. FRANCESCO DE MINICIS (Component Junta Union Italian Criminal Chambers)and is still in progress; (ANNEX N. 2,3,4, Reports of three Hearings of experts);

Even though it was predictable and even desirable, even a turned on and constructive debate in relation to the delicate and complex subject, actually happened much more, in that urged in a repetitive manner a real defamatory campaign on the web network, towards me,the association that I chair and of other people,

that is of the mentioned associative reality members to the Fecris and of their presidents,as well as against Don Aldo Bonaiuto;

- It is specified that Don Aldo Bonaiuto, entertainer of the service Occult Anti-Sects, which he runs the free phone anti sects 800228866 for the Giovanni XIII Community, is even him referent at the anti-sects Team (SAS); 

- Such accusatory campaign and the heavy insults spread on web, were put in place by subjects likely to be in competition with each other to date. Next at anonymous authors it has been possible to point out undoubtedly that the defamatory action was and is still now put in place by Mr. PIETRO BONO, one of the teachers of the organization called Arkeon, by the Dr. SIMONETTA PO and by the Dr. RAFFAELLA DI MARZIO.

[...]

Rimini 6th February 2012

______________________________________

But this is just one of the several “piloted” complaints that were filed by the Anti-cults Forum in order to get judiciary proceedings initiated so that those who disagree with their operation, could be silenced.

As it can be seen, the list of persons being targeted by the Forum is quite wide, but there would be even more names to be included. The common denominator of the persons assaulted by the Forum and the SAS is that they don’t agree with the method of spreading panic and alarm in order to denounce a fake “cult emergency” and so justify the approval of useless and unconstitutional laws.

The prig official statements, whereby they would like to depict themselves with an image of reasonable people who work for the wellbeing of their communities, clash against the real nature of the intents they pursue. The true spirit whereby they operate is well described in this short email sent to the vice-president of ARIS Toscana, Emanuela Fontana, by one of the members of the Forum named Gina Benfatto who now lives in the United States.

“(1 feb 2012) Subject: Hey
“No kidding, tell me, to disgrace Di Marzio I could reach the ICSA president.”
“kiss!”

This is not an isolated case. Also Alessandrini shows in this other email the true spirit which moves him.

“(18 feb 2011) Subject: Convention in Rome 16 feb 2011 at Lateranense University
“(…) Well yes, just she, Drs. Prof. Cavalier Raffaella Di Marzio (badly disappointed as she wasn’t invited as a speaker). She certainly did her fine speech to the dear Introvigne who was also badly mentioned by another speaker. (…) I was assured that CESNUR and their members are no longer appreciated at the Vatican.”
“kiss!”

Also Giovanni Ristuccia, a minor-importance member of the Anti-cults Forum and president of the micro-organization SOS Antiplagio of Novara, is no less than Alessandrini as far as their “humanitarian spirit” is concerned.

“(20 feb 2011) Subject: R: Re: Convention in Rome 16 feb 2011 at Lateranense University
“(…) Now Introvigne has started on his way for sunset (…)”

The infinite series of letters, anonymous complaints, reports, denounces; the continuous spreading of malicious news through e-mails and personal contacts with politicians, magistrates and newspaper reporters; the never-ending list of alarming statements diffused through TV shows, radio shows, magazines, conventions, congresses. All this with the sponsor and supervision of a police force that could at least be deemed abnormal if not plainly unconstitutional, is being implemented in order to demonize religious, spiritual and esoteric groups these individuals consider “cults.”

But as we saw, all this is also being utilized in order to limit the freedom of thought and of speech of those who, even if not being part of one of the presumed “cults,” yet expresses their viewpoints against such way of operating, or even only “pretends” to do a serious research and study with no prejudice forms of religiosity and spirituality that are different from those traditionally accepted.

The issue with “anti-cults” is that, being quite far away from a scholar or researcher behavior, they consider enemies all those who don’t share their vision of the subject religion or “cults.”

The same is about those who supports them and advise them. It is not a case that the SAS officer Bruno Zambon, writing to the vice-president ARIS Toscana Emanuela Fontana on 28 april 2012, concerning a parliamentary interrogation that criticized the “anti-cults”, talked about “opposing the power of enemy” and “never give up even if we remain alone and wind up being considered as crazy visionaries.”

Such statements show that their frame of mind is absolutely non-neutral and non-above parties, an approach which doesn’t fit public officers who should respect and enforce the law, beginning from the Constitution, with no prejudice.

According to us, in addition to being accountable of committing an ‘undue alarm’ crime as well as ‘aggravated slander’, also the abuse of justice organisms should be considered and the irregular utilization on the part of “anti-cults” of their position as privileged representatives of a police force, hence the abuses that SAS itself would certainly commit in playing this game.

oOo

30 May 2013