Italy’s Supreme Court stands poised to deliver a verdict this Thursday that could fundamentally reshape how corruption is prosecuted across the country, as two veteran prosecutors await a ruling that will determine whether they face criminal punishment for decisions made during a complex international bribery investigation. The case, stemming from a collapsed prosecution involving oil majors Shell and Eni, has sparked alarm among anti corruption advocates worldwide who warn that the outcome could transform prosecutors from independent legal officers into potential defendants whenever politically sensitive investigations fail to secure convictions.
At the heart of the controversy are Fabio de Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro, lead prosecutors in a high profile case against Shell, Eni, and senior executives accused of paying $1.1 billion in bribes to secure an offshore Nigerian oil field known as OPL 245. After all defendants were acquitted in 2021, the two prosecutors found themselves in the dock, initially charged with withholding an undercover video from the defence. When evidence emerged that Eni had possessed the video all along while the prosecutors themselves never had access to it, authorities withdrew and amended charges five times before settling on a single accusation of refusing to perform an official act, allegedly failing to file documents by a deadline despite those documents never being in their possession.
The convictions that followed, upheld by an Appeal Court, have been condemned by prominent legal figures including Nello Rossi, a former attorney general at the Supreme Court and member of the High Council of the Judiciary. Rossi described the decisions as based on questionable conjectures and illogical reasoning, noting they contradict elished legal precedent. No other Italian court has interpreted official disclosure rules to require prosecutors to hand over all materials received relating to a case regardless of source, relevance, or credibility. The ruling effectively criminalizes prosecutorial discretion, a cornerstone of judicial independence that until now has protected prosecutors who make good faith decisions in managing complex cases involving thousands of documents.
Complex corruption prosecutions routinely require prosecutors to exercise professional judgment about which documents merit inclusion in case files, allowing courts to focus on core issues rather than becoming overwhelmed by irrelevant material. That discretion, exercised without fear of criminal sanction when done in good faith, has been considered essential to effective prosecution. The new precedent threatens to paralyze prosecutors who must now weigh every procedural decision against the risk of future criminal liability, particularly in cases involving powerful corporate or political interests.
Adding layers of intrigue to the case, associates of Eni have been convicted in separate proceedings for conspiring with state officials to pollute the OPL 245 investigation, while a former senior legal counsel for the company currently faces prosecution for the same offense. One convicted individual has alleged that the pollution scheme aimed specifically to terminate the OPL 245 prosecutions, discredit and discipline the trial prosecutors, and reduce the effectiveness of the specialist anti corruption unit within the Milan Prosecutors’ Office. All three outcomes have materialized. The OECD’s Working Group on Bribery, which previously ruled that the 2021 acquittal of Shell and Eni contradicted the OECD Bribery Convention, plans to review these allegations later this year.
The Supreme Court’s decision will reverberate far beyond the fate of two individual prosecutors. International observers worry the ruling sends a signal that countries serious about fighting corruption may see their prosecutors turned into defendants when investigations touch powerful interests. Prosecutorial independence, long considered fundamental to the rule of law, s in the balance as Italy’s highest court prepares to rule on whether good faith professional judgment can be grounds for criminal conviction. The verdict will either restore a bedrock principle of Italian justice or cement a precedent that could chill corruption prosecutions for years to come.
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