<nettime> Luther Blissett Update # 3

[Luther Blissett <tom9351@iperbole.bologna.it>]

Luther Blissett Project, Italian Situation, Updates 
March 1999 - # 3
Repression and the "Musti Affair"


A few days ago, in the morning, one of my roommates answered the phone and
an unknown female voice said: ‘There's a package for Mr. [my real surname],
nay, for Luther Blissett... It's on your floor's landing, at your
neighbor's door". I went out and ran into a smelly card-board box. I opened
it carefully and found a severed pig head. 
It's just one of the several threats we've gotten from someone who isn't
pleased with our "Children of Satan" campaign. Of course these people know
that I'm one of our collective Spiderman's Peter Parkers. Well, we've got
some plausible suspicions, those clowns will get the fucking thing up their
sorry asses before they can say "ehm...".  
This update is about our libel court case and other related events. Those
of you who are yet unaware of the case (which originated from our book
*Lasciate Che I Bimbi: "Pedofilia", un pretesto per la caccia alle streghe*
[Let The Children...: "Pedophilia" as a Pretext for a Witch Hunt], 1997)
can have a look at
<http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/6812/ramp2.html>.  This website
badly needs to be updated and revised, I’ll do it myself ASAP. All the
same, it contains a fairly good account from the publication of the book to
Summer 98. 
Luckily, the book wasn't banned, there was no preventive seizure of the
copies.  The next hearing is scheduled for 11 November 1999. In the
meanwhile, Deputy District Attorney Lucia Musti filed an appeal against the
full acquittal of the Children of Satan, putting in a 250-pages-long,
groundless objection to the sentence. As always, her text didn't make
references to any evidence or reliable testimony. Moreover, she's looking
for some other nark to lie in court and slander the defendants. To make
things worse, a few copycat McMartin-like trials are going on in other
Italian towns...
The tangly events that have unfolded since the fateful day we decided to
write the book inspired a thicker and more scholarly essay entitled *Nemici
Dello Stato: Criminali, "Mostri" e Leggi Speciali nella Società di
Controllo* [Enemies of the State: Criminals, "Monsters" and Special Laws in
the Society of Control], which will be available in Italian bookstores on
March 12th.
And now, the latest stunts and coups-de-theatre.

I.

>From La Repubblica-Bologna, 15 January 1999, Thursday, p.V:

SATAN AND THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR COME ON THE SCENE
Dimitri-Musti Clash Becomes A Play - Black Mass Court Trial To Be Staged at
Teatro Polivalente Occupato

by Luigi Spezia

The "Dimitri affair" became a theatrical performance, as happened to the
"Sofri affair" staged by Dario Fo. Indeed, this performance focuses on the
magistrate that ordered the detention of the president of the Children of
Satan, thereby the title is "Il caso Musti" [The Musti Affair]. The
Bolognese Satan's judicial misadventure will be staged on January 30th at
TPO ("teatro polivalente occupato") in via Irnerio [a notorious squatted
building, t.n.], a place patronized by Luther Blissett, the collective
agent of alternative counter-information who assailed Deputy DA Musti's
inquiry on black masses. The magistrate refused to comment on the latest
"provocation".
*Il Caso Musti* is authored by Riccardo Paccosi, an actor and playwright
belonging to Amorevole Compagnia Pneumatica [...] It will be performed in
the context of a benefit show to raise funds for Luther Blissett's court
costs. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Musti brought a libel suit against
Blissett after the publication of the book *Lasciate che i bimbi*, which
bitterly criticized the Dimitri inquiry. 
*La Repubblica* contacted a spokesperson for Luther Blissett’s "Permanent
Workshop on Censorship and Repression", which might also be described as
"the producer" of *Il Caso Musti*. He stated: 'Dimitri will get some money
too. He's completely pennyless since his release from prison. IACP [Council
Housing Institute, t.n.] is about to evict him. Although he was innocent,
he's got such a wrecked reputation that nobody is giving him any job'.    
On January 30th, the performance will be staged twice during a
Latin/tropical dancing party. TPO, that was squatted three years ago [...],
will turn into a sort of sauna, given that the temperature will rise up to
35 deg. C,  'in order to escape from this bleak Inquisition winter'.
Marco Dimitri gave some advice for the performance: 'Last Summer [...]
these guys asked for my authorization, which I was very glad to give them.
I didn't see the rehearsals nor did I read the script, but I provided them
with first-hand accounts of the case. I support this work because people
must be aware of how risky is the judiciary [...]'.
As to Luther Blissett, he declared that Marco Dimitri's judicial mishap 'is
theatrically appealing. The case is an Odissey, and the magistrate is an
interesting character as well'. Nobody asked the latter's authorization
though. It seems that Luther Blissett doesn't fear another suit by Mrs.
Musti [...]
Riccardo Paccosi is a young author. He took part to the "Luther Blissett
Situationautic Theater’, now disbanded, which was devoted to street rioting
[...] He describes himself as 'an actor who tries to turn art into ethics
and then into politics'. [...] 'The play's targets are three: the Catholic
Church that backed the inquiry, the judiciary and the media'.


II.

from *Il Resto del Carlino* [Bologna right-wing daily paper], 24 January
1999: 


VIA IRNERIO THEATER TO BE EVACUATED
Illegal performances in spite of  safety irregularities - The DA Office
informs the City Hall - A Show on Prosecutor Musti? 

by Biagio Marsiglia

In the Local Magistrate's Court the rumor is official [bullshit! If it's a
rumor, then it cannot be official; if it's official, then it insn't a
rumor. T.n.]. The Teatro Polivalente Occupato in via Irnerio could be
evacuated by the police by the end of next week. This situation, which has
been tolerated for a long time (at least two years), suddenly became an
urgent question.
In fact, [...] after the news informed that next Saturday night the illegal
theater will host a show entitled *Il caso Musti* (i.e. Lucia Musti, the
magistrate who handled the investigations on the sect called "Children of
Satan"), the DA office sent an official report, directed to the City Hall's
Engineers' Office. Now TPO is an "affair" itself, and nobody can pretend
not to know what happens in there [...]


III.

[This is a press release issued by TPO and other squats, Leftist groups and
alternative media. The content is provokingly "liberal", in order to piss
off Musti and show her that those fucking Autonomists are far from being
juridically unprovided.]  


THE HIGH BOARD OF THE JUDICIARY MUST SUSPEND 
LUCIA MUSTI FROM HER OFFICE AND HER SALARY
Bologna, 25 January 1999

[...] [Lucia Musti's move] striked us as an attempt at interfering in the
hazardous negotiation between occupied clubs and the City Hall, to make the
latter lay an iron hand on the guilty of *crimen lesae majestatis*
[lese-majesty crime]. This is an extremely irresponsible behavior,
susceptible of provoking tension and make this problem even worse.
We are facing an intolerable, hideous preventive censorship of a cultural
manifestation whose content is yet unknown. By a groundless pretext
(safety), freedom of information and satire is injured, in obvious
contradiction with the 21st Article of the Constitution ("Everyone has a
right to freely express their thoughts by speech, writing and any other
means of propagation"). Should an entire community be forced to
(literally!) pay for the private grudges of a touchy magistrate?
Let's break through the enemy's lines, and take the field of knowledge that
- presumably - pertains to Musti. In this case, we find sufficient grounds
to charge her with 'abuse of official duties' and 'pursuit of private
interest in public function'. The substance of the offence invalidates the
reliability of both this magistrate and this District Attorney Office.
Musti is not new to infringements and violations: her behavior during the
inquiry on the Children of Satan striked us as contrary to virtually every
fundamental principle of the Constitution [...] and many articles of the
Declaration of Human Rights [...] 
Musti is not new to the intrusion of her personal opinions into his
investigations, either: a few weeks ago, she announced an inquiry on the
Animal Liberation Front and stated: 'I'm crazy for furs. I used my first
salary as a judge to buy myself a mink coat'. A magistrate who declares
his/her preconceptions towards the people subject to preliminary inquiry
acts in violation of the Code of Penal Procedure, whose art. 326 obliges
public prosecutors to 'ascertain any fact and circumstance that can
exculpate the person subject to preliminary inquiry'. 
All this considered, we urge the Disciplinary Section of the High Board of
the Judiciary to intervene and suspend Musti from her duties and her
salaries, in all cases granting food checks not exceeding the terms of law.
Alternatively, we ask for official censure and removal to another court. 

Coordinamento "2001 Odissea negli spazi"
(Teatro Polivalente Occupato, Luther Blissett Project, Link, Livello 57, il
Covo, Sottotetto, Grafton 9, Zero in condotta, Radio K Centrale,
Coordinamento gruppi teatrali, Bambini di Satana)



The sensation caused by our reaction forced the City Hall to officially
state that TPO wouldn't be evacuated. On 30 January, about 800 people
attended *Il caso Musti*.

 
Next updates:
#4 - Q

F.P. Belletati, Bologna, Italy
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