Nordio, the time for doubts on the Cospito case: intervene or wait for the Cassation

ROME. The 41bis must be rethought for Alfredo Cospito, the anarchist-insurrectionist terrorist who has been carrying out a hunger strike for 115 days. This is the summary of the position of the general prosecutor of the Cassation, in view of the hearing of February 24, after having examined the appeal of the defense and the order of the Surveillance court of Rome which had confirmed the hard prison in Cospito for the next 4 years .

Well, according to the pg of Cassation it is undisputed that Cospito is the leader and inspirer of a terrorist group, the informal anarchist federation, and it is equally undisputed that this group is to be considered a subversive organization in accordance with the law, as established by two sentences of the Turin judiciary in 2019 and 2020, reaffirmed by the Court of Cassation itself in July 2022.

However, there is a problem regarding the position of the prisoner Cospito. In the opinion of the public prosecution leadership, there is a lack of a “factual basis” and proven links between the prisoner and his organization. Already because the 41bis cannot justify the “rarefaction and compression of other freedoms within the walls except with the impediment of contacts and connections”. But these links must be concrete, and it is up to the supervisory court to motivate them. These connections, however, must be “specifically” aimed at avoiding “further crimes or activities of the external association”. Simple propaganda, which is incontrovertible even in the Cospito case, is not enough. All of this, in fact, does not exist in the provision of the Surveillance Court. And therefore, according to the pg, that provision must be annulled by the Cassation with referral to the court itself so that it can give better reasons, if it believes, or cancel everything.

Yes, because in the absence of concrete evidence of this connection – writes the general prosecutor – even “the defensive stigmatization according to which the special interclusive condition was justified only by the need to contain ideological extremism” would make sense.

Out of jargon, the public prosecutor says that, without proof, Cospito’s thesis, who had commented: “They find me too subversive and therefore they buried me in a reinforced concrete sarcophagus,” is not far-fetched.

Basically, the pg of Cassation believes that there is a lack of reasons in the provision of the Surveillance Court. Motivations that are instead necessary, as regards the connection between the inside and the outside, even in the presence of an evident ideological role. «It cannot be deduced entirely and solely, – writes the general prosecutor’s office, directed by Luigi Salvato – neither from the apical role, nor from the fact that he has become a point of reference for anarchism due to his writings and the convictions reported».

And here the question becomes purely political, because precisely his role as “inspirer” of the anarchist galaxy is at the basis of the very recent provision of Minister Carlo Nordio. For the Keeper of Seals, as it was also for the Surveillance Court of Rome, but also for the Turin Prosecutor’s Office, that is enough to consider him the head of an organization. Now the general prosecutor of Cassation claims the opposite with a very detailed provision, filed last Wednesday, a few hours before the minister’s ruling arrived.

And what will Minister Nordio do at this point? Will you wait for the hearing on February 24, even in the face of a health situation that risks precipitating at any moment? Or will he rethink his positions? When warm, everything seems to stand still. Only 72 hours have passed since the rejection of the request by the lawyer Flavio Rossi Albertini and everything suggests that the Minister of Justice will want to think about it. There would be room for manoeuvre: the public prosecutor’s office, as well as the anti-terrorism superprosecutor’s office, have highlighted that in the last 9 years Cospito had been restricted to the High Surveillance circuit, but without the imposition of censorship. An inexplicable underestimation that allowed the dissemination of five of his documents in the circles of anarchism.

“They are of sure and serious instigatory value”, defines them the general prosecutor. Cospito boasts of having “hit one of Italy’s major nuclear culprits in the living flesh” and approves of any “actions against power structures.” Yet, beyond the truculence – says the general prosecutor – the Surveillance Court and Minister Carlo Nordio must evaluate whether they are just ranting words or operational indications. Only on this basis is a 41bis permitted.