Update on Alfredo Cospito’s health after ending the hunger strike (27th April 2023)

Alfredo is starting to eat again (although more slowly than he’d like, eh! eh!), he is gradually starting to eat pasta and solids, in line with the suggestions of the dietologist.

His overall readings are relatively good. There seems to be a slight improvement in the condition of the foot that had lost all feeling, but according to the doctors it is not possible to make any prognosis for the time being, in any case he is walking a little better.

He is still hospitalised in the prison wing of San Paolo hospital, impatient to get out of hospital as at present he does not even have access to the hour’s exercise period and basically never gets out of the room/cell, moreover without even any natural light; however the doctors are saying that he should remain there for at least another week. He is in good spirits, basically he is getting better. He will continue to get visits from his lawyer and doctor, so there will be updates to follow.

Continue reading Milan, Italy: Updates on Alfredo Cospito’s health after ending the hunger strike (27th April and 3th of May2023) →

Anarchist Alfredo Cospito ended his hunger strike undertaken since Oct. 20

On Wednesday, April 19, 2023, anarchist Alfredo Cospito ended the hunger strike he began 181 days earlier, on Oct. 20, 2022, inside the Bancali prison in Sardinia. The comrade, who is currently an inmate in the prison medicine ward of the San Paolo Hospital in Milan, had been on an all-out hunger strike for six months against the detention regime established by Article 41 bis of the Penitentiary Order (a regime to which he had been transferred on May 5, 2022) and against the hostile life sentence, which risked being the final sentence for the comrade at the end of the Scripta Manent trial.

The interruption of the hunger strike comes in the wake of the April 18 hearing in Rome at the Constitutional Court, which recognized the prevalence of mitigating circumstances vis-à-vis repeated recidivism in the case of all convictions for crimes whose fixed penalty is life imprisonment. This is the case of Alfredo, in that with the requalification (by the court of cassation, at the end of the Scripta Manent trial) of the charge inherent in the double explosive attack against the Caserma Allievi Carabinieri in Fossano on June 2, 2006, from “common massacre” (art. 422 c. p.) to “political massacre” (i.e., “massacre for the purpose of attacking the security of the state,” art. 285 c. p.), comrades Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino were facing a sentence of hostile life imprisonment and 27 years in prison, respectively, as requested by the Turin prosecutor’s office.

Continue reading Italy: EN/ IT/ FR/ ES/ GR/ DE, On Wednesday, April 19, 2023, anarchist Alfredo Cospito ended the hunger strike he began 181 days earlier, on Oct. 20, 2022. →

About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for the anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial (Rome, 18 April 2023)

Today the hearing took place in the constitutional court for the case of Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino concerning the accusation of political massacre (art. 285 c. p.) within the Scripta Manent trial.
The existing Cirielli law (year 2005, Berlusconi government) prevents mitigating factors from outweighing aggravating factors in the event of recidivism. Particularly in Alfredo Cospito’s case, this would have resulted in a definite sentence of life imprisonment despite the fact that the action he and Anna are accused of did not cause any victims.

The court therefore found this rule unconstitutional. What is more, reading the brief press release that came out of the courthouse, the court seems to have raised doubts of constitutionality in general with regard to all those cases where the fixed penalty is uniquely life imprisonment.

Continue reading Rome Italy: About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for the anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial. →