Case Cospito, dialogues between bosses and crimes: the sensitive documents on 41 bis that the undersecretary could not divulge

ROME – Whichever side you take it from, the story of the honorable Member’s speech in the Chamber John Donzelli – for how it was born and for the very sensitive matter that constituted its content – is unprecedented. Perhaps not a crime (the Rome prosecutor’s office will decide), but certainly a blatant violation of the basic rules governing relations between the state administration, Parliament, the prison circuit and the anti-mafia prosecutors. Of which, according to sources from Palazzo Chigi, the Minister of Justice Charles Nordio, was in the dark. Nor will it be enough for the Undersecretary of Justice Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove hiding behind the “administrative nature” of the documents that he handed over to his party colleague to prove that they were ostensible: no service reports reporting, even indirectly, the dialogues of mafia bosses imprisoned under 41 bis – potentially containing one or more crime reports – can be circulated like this.

The file from the Dap to via Arenula

Let’s go back to last Monday, when the Directorate General for “Prisoners and Treatment” of the Department of Penitentiary Administration (DAP) sent the file with the service reports on the anarchist by email to the Ministry of Justice Alfred Cospito held at the time in the Bancali institute in Sassari. They were written by the operators of the Mobile Operations Group (GOM) who, during social walks, listen, record and report the conversations of the inmates. Normally they end up with the National Anti-Mafia Directorate and the competent District but, in this case, Nordio asked for them so they were also sent to his Cabinet Chief and Undersecretary Delmastro who has the delegation to the Dap. To quote the former national anti-mafia prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho: “These are reports in which any circumstance and episode relevant to security is reported. In my opinion they are and must be covered by secrecy and public officials are required to maintain secrecy”.

The opening of a window

Also because, and this is the point, the precautionary principle applies: they could contain crime reports and therefore must be examined by a magistrate who will decide what to do with them. The proof is that precisely that report, among others, served DNA to formulate an opinion on whether or not to keep Cospito at 41 bis, which arrived on Nordio’s table on Tuesday: a glimmer opens, because if on the one hand the DNA confirms the assessment that had led him to hard prison in May, also gives an account of the innovations that have occurred and reported by the anarchist’s lawyer. As if to say that, should the ministry decide to attenuate the regime, the Anti-terrorism investigators would not raise barricades.

Exchanges with the mobsters

The future of Cospito therefore lies in those documents. The secrets of some of Italy’s most dangerous prisoners. And potential crime reports. But Delmastro, apparently, doesn’t know this. Or he pretends not to know. Then between Monday and Tuesday he refers to Donzelli the contents of one of the reports: coincidentally, the one of last January 13 which reports on the visit to Cospito’s cell by the four deputies of the Democratic Party Serracchiani, Verini, Orlando And Lai. He adds the details of the chats in the courtyard of the Sassari prison. TO Francesco Prestaboss of the ‘Ndrangheta, who urged him to continue the protest for the abolition of the 41 bis (“you have to keep the trend, go ahead”, “it would be important that the issue reach a European level and maybe they would remove the life sentence “) Cospito replied: “Not only anarchists are moving out, but also other associations. Now let’s see what happens in Rome”. Francis DiMaioa man of the Casalesi family, was on the same line as Presta: “Piece after piece, the result will be achieved”.

“Always Sensitive Relationships”

Even Minister Nordio had to admit that those reports “are always sensitive”. Regardless of how the Roman investigation will end, the political responsibility of Delmastro first and then Donzelli (the latter is also vice president of Copasir, where dozens of top secret papers flow: will he also use those as a cudgel in Parliament?) is evident. If only for the chain of contradictory versions that the two have provided in the last 48 hours. At first Donzelli spoke of “access to documents”, but the access procedure, regulated by law 241, has timings that are not compatible with the facts as they took place. And to have a positive outcome, a reasoned measure approved by the Keeper himself is needed. The practice isn’t there, in fact Nordio didn’t say anything about it.

The role of the prime minister

Last point: the premier Giorgia Meloni Did you know that Donzelli would attack the opposition by exploiting the information that the undersecretary had slipped him under the table? Delmastro, in an interview with Repubblica, limited himself to saying: “I believe the premier is carrying out all the reconstructions. I have reason to believe that what I am saying is proven, simply because it is true”.