Rome, Italy - AN Italian judge has been suspended for refusing to work in courtrooms adorned with a crucifix - the latest twist in a Europe-wide clash between secularists and those who want to assert the continent's Christian traditions.
Luigi Tosti has refused to preside since May after authorities said he must not remove the crucifix from his courtroom wall.
The judge said the Christian symbol discriminated against defendants of other faiths or of none.
"I have a sacrosanct right not to work with a crucifix above my head," 57-year-old Mr Tosti said.
Italian authorities disagree. Mr Tosti was given a seven-month suspended jail sentence in December for refusing to carry out his public duty, and yesterday he was suspended without pay by the professional body that governs Italy's judiciary.
Laws passed under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1920s decree Italian schools and courtrooms must display the cross.
Since Italy dropped Catholicism as the state religion under a new accord with the Vatican in 1984 the law has not been strictly enforced in schools, but Italian judges still preside under a crucifix on the courtroom wall.
Mr Tosti, a religious sceptic who says he has "sympathies" for Judaism, decided to test the law by asking to put a menorah, the symbolic Jewish candelabrum, next to the crucifix, but he was told no.
"From the moment you ban one religious symbol and allow another, that's discrimination. It's like saying blacks and Jews have to sit outside," Mr Tosti said.
He also refused a proposal to operate in a separate courtroom where there would be no cross, saying it would "ghettoise" him.