After an exhausting eight-year battle in court, Mr. Luca Volontè, a chief contributor to iFamNews and a board member of the International Organization for the Family (IOF), has been cleared of all charges filed against him.
Brian Brown, President of IOF, issued the following statement on the acquittal:
“We are very happy that our dear friend and board member Luca Volontè was acquitted on all charges in Italian courts this week. We never removed Luca from our board or wavered in our support because we always knew he was innocent and that these charges were purely motivated by anti-life and anti-family bias. Luca and his family have suffered tremendously. He was charged and put through an eight-year ordeal costing him money, time, and reputation. He was punished and marginalized and his family and received many slanderous attacks, but now justice is done. We do notice that the liberal press has been predictably silent on the news of Luca’s acquittal. We will not be. More will be coming. But for now, we offer our prayers and support for Luca and his family. We also pray for those that have slandered his name and reputation, that they will correct their lies and apologize for their errors.”
The allegations made against Mr. Volontè by the prosecutor’s office at the Court of Milan were connected with his activities at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg. In January 2010, Luca Volontè was elected chairman of the parliamentary group of the European People’s Party (EPP) and since then, Luca and the EPP defeated anti-family proposals (such as the McCafferty Report) that were supported by the flagships of abortion industry, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The McCafferty Report aimed to limit the freedom of medical professionals and hospitals to cite conscientious objection with respect to controversial practices, such as abortion and euthanasia.
The three years of Volontè’s activity (2010–2013) earned him the fury of the LGBT lobby, resulting in a spurious investigation launched against him in June 2014, after an Italian bank reported a “suspicious transaction”—which was in fact the payment of regular invoices by Luca Volontè consultancy company, for which taxes were regularly paid to the government (35%). Volontè was first charged with bribery and later money laundering charges were added.
The “investigations” of Soros’ Open Society Foundation, ESI, and Open Democracy produced fodder to NGOs and left-wing press to mount a campaign aimed at destroying Luca’s image, family, parliamentary activity and honor.
Thankfully, in this acquittal, true justice has indeed been served.
[Editor’s note: The entire iFamNews team is very heartened by the vindication of our dear friend and colleague. Luca’s contributions have been invaluable, in particular his regular updates on “Good News” on the family front around the world. We are happy that he is now the beneficiary of some well-deserved good news himself!]