Italy’s Grillo given jail term for slander

Beppe Grillo, who leads Italy’s second biggest party, the Five-Star Movement, has been given a one-year jail term for slandering a science professor. Prof Francesco Battaglia said that he had been threatened and his car vandalised after Mr Grillo criticised him for backing nuclear energy. Mr Grillo, who is unlikely to go to jail, also […]

Beppe Grillo, who leads Italy’s second biggest party, the Five-Star Movement, has been given a one-year jail term for slandering a science professor.
Prof Francesco Battaglia said that he had been threatened and his car vandalised after Mr Grillo criticised him for backing nuclear energy.
Mr Grillo, who is unlikely to go to jail, also faces damages of $56,000. He suggested people were afraid his party was getting close to government.
He likened himself to Italian anti-Fascist campaigner Sandro Pertini and South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela who had spent time in jail.
“If Pertini and Mandela ended up in prison, I can go there too for a cause that has been supported by the overwhelming majority of Italians,” he wrote on his blog.