Denying the Holocaust is finally a crime in Italy

The bill was passed by the lower house of parliament on Wednesday night.

“By approving this law, parliament intends to tackle the most subtle forms of racial defamation, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred,” Chiara Gribaudo, the Democratic Party vice-president of the house, said.

France, Germany and Belgium are among the other EU states which have criminalized Holocaust denial.

Of more than 1,000 Jews deported from Rome’s Ghetto during the Second World War, just 16 retued.