Alfredo Cospito

Alfredo Cospito is an anarchist political prisoner who is detained in a regime of maximum security called ‘41-bis’ in the prison of Bancali, Sassari (Sardinia). Cospito, 55 years old, has already served a 10-years prison sentence in a special regime for the kneecapping of a CEO of a nuclear agency in 2012. During his detention, however, he kept publishing and writing for fanzines and blogs of the insurrectional anarchist milieu, and activity that, at worse, may be considered subversive propaganda (a crime that was de-penalized in Italy). In 2022 he was again prosecuted for an attack against a military school occurred in 2006: a low-potential explosion that caused no death nor harm, and that – unlike the first attack – he declares he did not take part in. Despite nobody being injured in the attack, the crime was later requalified by the Supreme Court as a ‘massacre against the security of the state’, and the Ministry of Justice issued a decree stating that he was the chief of a criminal organization able to direct actions out of prison. No actual evidence was considered neither of the existence of such an organization, nor of his alleged role of leader, something that, furthermore, is incompatible with the anarchist loose and non hierarchical form of organization. He was thus convicted to life-long imprisonment in the extreme isolation regime of 41-bis. In protest against this harsh and inhuman detention regime, in October 2022 he started a hunger strike that today reaches the 104st day.

His health conditions are extremely deteriorated; he only moves in a wheelchair, many of his physiological processes are compromised, and recently he fainted and fell, breaking his nose. Cospito will soon die, unless the Italian authorities revoke the 41-bis regime to which he was unjustly condemned. The case has recently hit mainstream Italian media, but the international press is ignoring the issue despite its enormous political implications.

Cospito is imprisoned alone in a small cell during all day and night; for one hour a day he is allowed in a small courtyard, alone, and for another hour per day he is allowed interaction with a group of three other prisoners selected by the prison administration. He is not allowed to access the prison gym nor the library; he is not allowed to receive books and journals from outside; he can only buy a newspaper among the three daily newspapers chosen by the prison authority, from which news that are considered inappropriate are censored; and he can only have one book at a time, buying them from a specific bookshop in Sassari chosen by the prison authority. Cospito was even refused to keep a photograph of his dead parents in the cell. The severity of this regime appears cruel and inhuman, especially when applied to a person who is 55 years old, and is having irreparable consequences on his physical and mental health. This is not the function and scope of detaining facilities, which should be based on the re-education and reinsertion of prisoners. International human rights agency have closely investigated the possibility that 41-bis can amount to torture; a UN commission concluded that the requisites of an existing criminal association and the role of leader of the person convicted have to be met – none of them is fulfilled in Cospito’s case. A similar life-long sentence inflicted to a mafia boss has been considered inhuman and degradating by the EU court of human rights, despite the person involved, differently than Cospito, had committed several murders.

Complete timeline and additional details: Cospito was arrested in 2012 for the kneecapping of Ansaldo CEO Adinolfi, a crime he reclaimed at the first hearing. He was condemned to 10-years prison in a security regime called AS2. While in prison, in 2014 he was investigated for his alleged participation to another action, the 2006 explosion of two low potential artifacts in front of a military school in Northern Italy, which caused no death no harm, and which he did not reclaim as the 2014 kneecapping, and sentenced him to 20 additional years of imprisonment. In May 2022 the Ministry of Justice issued a decree stating that his condemn should be shifted to the 41-bis detention regime, motivating it through his writings and public calls to direct action. In July 2022 the Court of Cassation requalified the 2006 explosion as a ‘massacre against the security of the state’ - a felony instituted by the fascist dictatorship that does not require actual dead or harm, and that is punished with life-long imprisonment and the obstruction of any alternative measure to prison (ergastolo ostativo) – a harsh sentence that has to be understood as substituting the death penalty initially associated to this felony. The possibility of requesting a reduction of this sentence due to the attenuating circumstance that the attack caused no harm has been rejected on the basis that Mr. Cospito is considered a recidivist offender. In October 2022 Cospito began a hunger strike for the end of 41-bis for him and for all prisoners. In response to an appeal lodged against the Parliamentary decree, on December 1st, 2022, the Surveillance Court of Rome evaluated the possibility of revoking the Ministry’s decree, after six months of its application to Mr. Cospito, but the sentence confirmed the detention regime; an appeal against it was lodged on December 27th to the Court of Cassation, but the Court set as the date for the hearing March 3rd. On January 27th Cospito reached his 100th day of hunger strike and will probably be dead by then.

The last weeks of January saw an increase in public pressure through the media to save Cospito’s life. Many Italian artistic, political and scientific personalities petitioned the Italian Ministry of justice Nordio; former senator Luigi Manconi yesterday (25/10) even addressed the pope from the pages of the popular newspaper La Stampa. His attorney submitted an individual communication to the UN Human Rights Committe, that was rejected on January 27th on the basis of non-exhaustion of domestic remedies. A new petition was forwarded to the Special Procedure office, but right now international pressure on the Italian government is the only way that he can be saved from a tragic outcome.

The cruel repression against Cospito as an anarchist political dissident has a wider significance: more and more political activities in Italy are getting targeted with repressive tools designed for mafia.

References:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/jailed-italian-anarchist-leader-enters-100th-day-hunger-strike-2023-01-27/

https://www.rainews.it/articoli/2023/01/il-garante-dei-detenuti-cospito-va-trasferito-con-urgenza-grave-udienza-marzo-41-bis-f0020766-eb4d-484c-987b-d39c95e893e7.html

https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2023/01/26/news/alfredo_cospito_la_dottoressa_in_carcere_peggiora_non_cammina_ha_il_naso_rotto_per_una_caduta-385205221/