Italian judge wins one fight over crucifix

ROME, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The highest Italian court reversed the conviction Tuesday of a judge who refuses to enter courtrooms where a crucifix is hanging.

Judge Luigi Tosti is Jewish but he says his main objection to the crosses is that they violate the separation of church and state, mandated by the Italian constitution adopted after World War II, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The supreme judicial court sentenced Tosti to seven months in jail in 2007. During the appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation, a prosecutor recommended sparing the judge prison but the court found that he had committed no crime and quashed his conviction.

Tosti is in the midst of a second suspension from the bench, ANSA said.

Italy neither requires nor bans crucifixes from the courtroom and from schools and other government buildings. Although Italians are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, the church has had no special standing for decades.

In 2004, Tosti threatened to display a menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum that is one of Judaism's religious symbols, in his courtroom. He changed his mind when Italian Muslims supported the plan, the ANSA report said.