via: infernourbano Translated by Act for freedom now!
Update on Operation Sibilla: Hearing set for Alfredo Cospito and the other comrades under investigation at Perugia review court.
Written February 18, 2023
On February 13th notification was given of the the date of the review hearing on the pre-trial measures for comrades targeted in the repressive operation Sibilla of 11th November 2021 (among whom Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike for over 120 days, and Gianluca, currently under house arrest for the investigation Diamante of the public prosecutor’s office of Genoa). The hearing has been set for March 14th at the court of Perugia.
This second review resulted from the hearing held last June 22nd in Rome at the court of cassation, concluded with the acceptance of the prosecutor Manuela Comodi’s request, therefore with the annulment of the previous order of the court of review (which on December 16th had led to the lifting of the precautionary measures). The court of cassation, in spite of the opinion of the general prosecutor (who had called for the rejection of the Perugia prosecutor’s appeal), had therefore ‘exhumed’ the investigation by cancelling the revocation of the measures and ordering a new re-examination hearing.
Operation Sibilla, carried out by the carabinieri Special Operations Group and the Perugia public prosecutor’s office under the coordination of the Antimafia and Antiterrorism National Direction, played a key role in the genesis and application of the 41 bis detention order for the comrade Alfredo Cospito.
Eight comrades (among whom also Alfredo), already previously investigated by the ROS and the Milan prosecutor’s office in another proceedings for 270 bis c. p. (subversive association with aims of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order) and 414 c. p. (incitement to commit a crime, with the aggravating circumstance of the purpose of terrorism) in relation to the editing, publication and distribution of the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo”, had been subject in September 2021, by the Perugia public prosecutor’s office, of a request for precautionary measures in prison on the same charges, plus other various charges relating to further articles, leaflets and documents, as well as wall writings and for one comrade the damaging of a number of vehicles of Poste Italiane (Foligno, 6th June 2019) in solidarity with the anarchist comrades on hunger strike for the closure of the high security section 2 of the prison of Aquila.
At the same time as this request for arrest, a three-month correspondence censure was ordered for Alfredo Cospito, subsequently renewed several times. The reasons for this censorship only became clear a couple of months later, when – with the operation of November 11th – the Sibilla investigation “emerged” and the origical request of the prosecutor Comodi was reviewed by the Judge for preliminary investigations. Thus, a new order no longer stipulated eight arrests in prison but six precautionary measures in relation to the sole charge of incitement to commit a crime with aggravating circumstance of terrorism: an arrest warrant for Alfredo cospito (locked up in the prison of Terni at the time); house arrest with full restrictions for a comrade of Spoleto; an obligation to stay in the municipality of residence combined with an obligation to sign three days a week for four comrades. In addition, other comrades were investigated without arrest, countless searches were carried out and two internet sites (roundrobin.info e malacoda.noblogs.org) were subjected to preventive seizure and blacked out (a practically unprecedented fact with regard to the Italian speaking anarchist movement), remaining unreachable to this day with conventional search engines.
According to the ROS carabinieri, The Milan and Perugia prosecutors offices and the DVAA, particularly in “Vetriolo”, as well as in the other texts under prosecution, «strategic concepts were expressed in the orientation and in the instigatory propaganda mechanism incitement having the concrete capacity to provoke the commission of specific non-culpable offences against the international and internal personality of the State, with the aim of through the practice of violence, subverting its legal, political, economic and social order». In this sense, with the aim of showing the «correspondence between the contents of “Vetriolo” and certain direct actions», the ROS – in search of lexical and conceptual analogies, similarities or coincidences – had undertaken in the more extensive investigation prior to Sibilla a comparison between the articles published in the first issues of the journal and the texts claiming some incendiary and explosive attacks that took place in Italy, France and Greece.
This “theorisation” of the «strategic concepts in the orientation and instigation propaganda mechanism» (arising from the repressive needs of the Italian State in recent years and strictly linked to article 414c.p.) was later found to be central – along with the conviction for 270 bis in the Scripta Manent trial – for the application of 41 bis to Alfredo and lately has also been brought up by various political and institutional figures of the attempted annihilation of the comrade. As has been pointed out by some of those under investigation, «stating that Alfredo “incited” from the prison the committing of revolutionary actions, [Sibilla inquest] constitutes a good reason to maintain the need to impede any communication with the outside world in his regard.
We are taking it upon ourselves to firmly denounce what we believe happened. It is clear that the cassation received the appropriate pressure to keep the operation alive, albeit in intensive care. A decision taken over and above the Attorney General’s own requests, the delay in the motives, the captiousness of the motives, all this speaks to us of the need to maintain, while grasping at straws, a specific accusation of incitement against Alfredo». In light of the repressive events recounted in this update, and especially the current grave situation of the comrade on hunger strike, it is clear that the key figures in the investigation that led to the operation Sibilla are among those responsible for implementing the applicatio n of 41 bis.
In the immediate, not in a radiant future, it is solidarity in revolutionary action that will be able to break this isolation and be able to destroy the prisons. Today as yesterday, against all resignation and disorientation, we continue to firmly believe in and stake our claims in the same solidarity, in the same urgent need for action.
Pending the hearing in cassation of 24th February and of that of the review of March 14th, we continue to support mobilisation, in particular inviting all comrades and those in solidarity to the initiative “You bet we remember!” due to take place on February 24th in Foligno in via Monte Bianco from 4 p.m. onwards We support all the anarchist and revolutionary initiatives in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito and all the imprisoned comrades.
Some anarchists under investigation and in solidarity
18 February 2023
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Per completezza, riportiamo i testi scritti da compagni indagati a partire da novembre 2021:
— Alcuni indagati e compagni solidali, “La Sibilla prevede tempesta?”, novembre 2021.
— Roundrobin, “Comunicato di roundrobin.info sull’operazione repressiva Sibilla dell’11 novembre”, novembre 2021.
— Alfredo Cospito, “In merito all’operazione Sibilla”, novembre 2021.
— Michele Fabiani, “La reazione in Italia. Messaggio nella botte sull’operazione Sibilla e molto altro”, dicembre 2021.
— Francesco Rota Sulis, “Spazi bianchi e lettere nere. A proposito dell’operazione repressiva Sibilla”, gennaio 2022.
Riportiamo, infine, un paio di testi scritti da compagni indagati e uno dal Circolo Anarchico “La Faglia” a seguito del trasferimento di Alfredo Cospito in 41 bis nel maggio 2022:
— Alcuni anarchici indagati, “Un aggiornamento e alcune considerazioni sull’operazione Sibilla e il 41 bis contro l’anarchico Alfredo Cospito”, 23 giugno 2022.
— Adriano, Federica, Francesco, Matteo, Michele, Paolo, Sara, “Inchiesta Sibilla e 41 bis all’anarchico Alfredo Cospito: presa di posizione di alcuni indagati”, novembre 2022.
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Notes from Act for free : PDF
A new repressive operation, named
“Sibilla”, against anarchists in Italy NOVEMBER 2021