Cospito, hospitalization if it gets worse. Anarchists in the square, clashes in Rome and Opera-Corriere.it

A procession with some scuffles in Rome (three arrested and two injured) and stone throwing at the prison officers in front of the Opera prison in Milan. The demonstrations in favor of Alfredo Cospito were staged, even yesterday, while hospitalization is looming for the Fai anarchist. The Roman procession winds its way between piazza Vittorio and via Prenestina with some historic slogans (“Our passion for freedom is stronger than any authority”) and others that incite violence (“State prisons close with fire, but with the guards inside, otherwise it’s too little»). Here people march behind a large banner calling for the release of Cospito from the 41 bis, remembering the inmate suicides and branding the major episodes of violence since the post-war period to the present day as state massacres, from Piazza Fontana to Italicus, passing through the tragedies of migrants in Mediterranean. Towards the end, some throwing of bottles and overturning of bins pushes the Digos agents to intervene with a charge.

In Milan insults to journalists, pushed away by the garrison of anarchists, and stone throwing against the prison police of the Opera prison. The demonstration organized outside the penitentiary which has hosted the 55-year-old exponent of the informal anarchist federation since Monday is attended by 350 militants who have arrived from central Italy. There are small groups from Turin, Rovereto (Trento), Genoa, Bologna, Lecco, Como and Varese. But also a delegation from Switzerland. A sign that the international campaign against the 41 bis and to ask for Cospito’s release is finding fertile ground even outside national borders. It is not yet the great anarchist gathering that investigators fear could take place in Milan in the coming weeks, but the signal that the front of the squares is increasingly compact. And the themes of protest are also increasing: social tensions, the cost of living, migrants and work are now added to the prison issue.

Also in attendance outside the Opera are the grassroots union Si Cobas and, individually, the latest generation environmental activist Simone Ficicchia for whom the Pavia police station had requested special surveillance, which was later denied by the judges. Outside prison slogans against the police and for the abolition of 41 bis for all prisoners. Tension when a group of 250 militants across the fields reached the external fence on the west side of Opera and began to shake the net: throwing stones, firecrackers and smoke bombs at Digos and the penitentiary, but no contact with the agents. Today it is repeated in front of the Beccaria juvenile prison, but the garrison had already been convened before Cospito’s transfer to Milan.

The game that could unlock the impasse on 41 bis is now being played precisely on the prisoner’s health conditions. A third way with respect to the political or judicial solution. In the event of an aggravation of Cospito’s health conditions (for now defined as still compatible with detention in the clinical centre), the prisoner could be transferred to the penitentiary department of the San Paolo hospital. The doctors of Opera and the Surveillance Court of Milan, presided over by Joanna DiRosa, are beginning to evaluate the hypothesis of a hospitalization. At least in the event that the 55-year-old, who reached day 109 of hunger strike, should continue to get worse, given that prolonged fasting could lead to a heart attack and the need for life-saving treatments. Hypothesis rejected however by the anarchist’s lawyer, Flavio Rossi Albertini, which has forwarded a warning to the Ministry of Justice and for information to the Ombudsman of prisoners, “so that he is not subjected to forced nutrition or treatment”. On this point, however, compulsory medical treatment (Tso) could intervene with the forced intervention of doctors. Even if the possible revocation of 41 bis for health conditions is considered a narrow path from a legal point of view.