(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 10 - The president of the judiciary's union, the National Association of Magistrates (ANM), Giuseppe Santalucia, expressed concern on Sunday that a controversy between members of the government and the judiciary sparked by court rulings not validating the detention of asylum seekers at new Italian-run processing centres could be reignited by future sentences on similar cases.
    Speaking on the sidelines of the congress of the left-wing Magistratura Democratica (MD) faction in the judiciary's union, Santalucia said he feared the resurgence of a "controversy that doesn't benefit anyone" and expressed trust that the rulings issued so far "can be read, understood".
    "It is possible to dissent or not, the word will now go to the Court of Cassation and to the (European Court) of Justice but there is no intention of politicization or of igniting a clash with political forces" said Santalucia, replying to a question concerning possible future scenarios after a Rome court nixed the detention of the first group of migrants taken to new processing centres for asylum seekers Italy has opened in Albania.
    The decision was taken based on a previous ruling of the European Court of Justice and it was appealed by the interior ministry to the Cassation Court.
    Italian Navy vessel Libra on Friday took a second group of eight migrants to the new processing facility in Albania and the immigration section of Rome's tribunal will now have to decide whether to validate their detention.
    Santalucia on Sunday also said the climate between the judiciary and politicians had worsened since the governments of late three-time premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi.
    The ANM president noted that, previously, only prosecutors were slammed as 'red judicial robes', or allegedly partisan left-leaning magistrates, while "today the red judicial robes are everywhere, even in civil courts dealing with immigration".
    (ANSA).