Clementina Forleo

Maria Clementina Forleo (born 1963, in Francavilla Fontana, province of Brindisi) is an Italian preliminary judge (Giudice per le indagini preliminari, or GIP for short) at the Court of Milan.

She came to national prominence after discovering the existence of audio tapes of telephone calls between high level Italian politicians and Stefano Ricucci and Gianpiero Fiorani. These businessmen had mysteriously become extremely rich in about only 10 years buying and selling very expensive and extravagant luxury real estate properties, with earnings around 100% to 300% over a reasonable market price. Italian journalists have speculated that this could reflect a new way of bribing politicians.

Forleo got her diploma as one of the top 25 high school students in Italy. After getting her degree in law summa cum laude from the University of Bari, she took a series of competitive exams in order to join the police or the judiciary.

In 1989, having won one of the two competitive exams (certamen), Clementina Forleo became a commissioner in the Polizia di Stato. After only one month, having won the other certamen, she resigned from the Italian police in order to begin her career as a judge. During her short time in the police, she received a "solemn praise" (encomio solenne) for her work during the crisis resulting from large-scale illegal immigration from Albania and Africa into the Apulia coastal region of Italy.

Clementina Forleo became famous as a judge when she found two Tunisian nationals, Maher Boujahia and Ali Toumi, and a Moroccan, Mohamed Daki, innocent of the charge of international terrorism. Several Italian and international media organizations criticized her decision, which was motivated by the distinction between the actions committed by freedom fighters and terrorists (the first executing attacks against military targets, the second attacking helpless civilians). This concept was welcomed and further amplified by the judges of the Appeal Court (Corte d'Assise d'Appello).

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