An Italian town is pursuing legal action against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over a cartoon portraying victims of last month’s earthquake as types of pasta, and another suggesting the mafia was to blame for the death toll of almost 300, reports The Guardian.
One cartoon, entitled Earthquake Italian-Style, captioned drawings of a bloodied and bandaged man as “penne in tomato sauce”, a scratched and swollen woman as “penne au gratin” and a collapsed building with blood and feet emerging from it as “lasagne”.
After Italians responded angrily, the magazine, known for its provocative, taboo-busting cartoons, published a second one, showing a person half-buried under rubble, saying: “Italians … it’s not Charlie Hebdo who built your homes, it’s the mafia!
Amatrice, the home of amatriciana pasta sauce, was flattened by the earthquake on August 24th.
The local government called the cartoons “a macabre, senseless and absurd insult to the victims”, said Mario Cicchetti, a lawyer for Amatrice city hall.
It has asked a local prosecutor to investigate Charlie Hebdo for “aggravated defamation”, a crime for which the town would seek civil damages.
Although the cartoons were published in France, Cicchetti said the legal case could be brought in Italy because they had been widely seen and shared there.
Twelve people were shot dead at Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris in 2015 by Islamist militants who accused the magazine of blasphemy for printing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.