Alfredo Cospito, because the anarchist can escape life imprisonment

Alfredo Cospito, 55 years old, was born in Pescara and is the leader of the anarchists in Italy. He has been in jail for more than a decade since 2013 for kicking Roberto Adinolfi, CEO of Ansaldo Nuclear. A second sentence is also expected for the attack on the Carabinieri school in Fossano, Cuneo province. In this second part, the Turin judges await the Constitutional Court’s decision that could make the difference between a life sentence or a lighter sentence. All the while, last year the Ministry of Justice decided to apply the so-called “hard prison” 41 bis regime to Cospito. Marta Cartabia, the minister at the time, announced that the prisoner sent multiple messages to his anarchist comrades, inviting them to “openly continue the fight against domination, especially by means of violence considered to be more effective”. This is the story of Alfredo Cospito, the first Italian anarchist who was imprisoned in 41 bis.

Black terrorism and background: “I know who sent you bastards”

The new season of action attributed to anarchists began in 2003. In Bologna, two explosive devices smashed two garbage cans in a street near the house of then European Commission president Romano Prodi. From there, there was a continuum of anarchist action in Italy: packages with bombs, bullets fired at politicians and journalists, sabotage, writings on walls to claim demonstrative actions. Recent writings against 41 bis, which surfaced in Turin, where a repeater bridge was set on fire, confirmed a course of action that has always been the same.

“I was the one who unpacked the anarchists”

But what did Cospito do so seriously that he ended up in jail? On May 7, 2012, he was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison for kicking Roberto Adinolfi, CEO of the Italian company Ansaldo Nuclear, which is building nuclear power plants. According to Cospito and Nicola Gai, another anarchist who participated in the raid, Adinolfi was “one of the main culprits of the coming nuclear disaster”. Gai said this himself at the trial in 2013, citing the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. At the hearing, where the anarchists read a statement to explain the reasons for their actions, Gai described how it happened just a few steps after the shooting. “Now I know who sent you, bastards,” Adinolfi had shouted at the house of the company director.

That bombing that could kill

In the following years, Cospito was accused of planting two bomb packages at one of the exits of the Carabinieri school in Fossano, in the province of Cuneo. In this case, there were no deaths or injuries. However, we read that Alfredo Cospito detonated “two potentially explosive devices” while the 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Turin Court of Appeal raised the question of constitutional legitimacy about this factual process (bis). There was half a kilo of gunpowder. They were two pressure cookers. According to the judges, these were bombs “preset to explode half an hour apart to maximize the effects of the explosion.” So Cospito’s idea was to do harm, along with his partner at the time, Anna Beniamino (again in prison). Meanwhile, he wanted to land in the heart of the Italian state by causing an explosion and then a second explosion to shoot the soldiers running to the scene.

Possibility of avoiding trial, imprisonment and life sentence

The fact is that for this attack, Cospito was sentenced to twenty years in prison on appeal, and Beniamino was sentenced to sixteen years for joint murder. And a whole judicial game has been played on this very crime, because the definition of the judiciary is still pending. Our application for re-determination of the sentence continues. “Bis” because there is already a case (the case that resulted in twenty years in prison). Then the chief prosecutor appealed to the Supreme Court: according to him, the crime was not an ordinary massacre, but a “political massacre”, that is, the 285th life sentence of the penal code. After accepting the appeal, we went back to the second degree, where the prosecution reformulated the charge and asked for life imprisonment for the 55-year-old and 27 years and 1 month for Beniamino.

At this point, however, the anarchist’s defense calls for the mitigating factor of the “insignificance of truth” to be applied. The Court of Appeal of Turin wants the intervention of the Constitutional Court instead of sentencing. The doubt is simple: is it possible to apply the mitigating factor for the attack on the Carabinieri School?

Step back. What is the minor mitigating factor (311 of the penal code)? The penalties imposed for the offenses under this title, either because of the nature, type, means, procedures or circumstances of the act, or because of the particular lightness of the harm or danger”. Can an attack be considered a minor incident? Consequences and damage must be taken into account. Turin Robes , right in the decree in which the Constitutional Court was consulted, it was written, “To be evaluated in relation to the scope of the crime, taking into account the ways in which the crime was committed and the concrete consequences that can be drawn from it.” Violation of the damage to the assets/interests protected by the incriminating provision, Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino It is seen that the behavior of ‘s behavior meets the criteria set out in article 311 of the penal code”. So there seems to be a requirement for meekness.

But it’s not that simple. There is a law that prohibits the application of extenuating circumstances to repeat offenders, i.e. those who willfully commit the same crime within a specified period of time. So Cospito was guilty again in the first trial, but will he be admitted as such in the second trial? Constitutionalists will have to answer that, and according to that answer, Alfredo Cospito yes, but he will not be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Alfredo Cospito, whose leader

If there is one adjective to describe Cospito, it is “anarchist”. But what does it mean to be an anarchist and above all what does it mean to be its leader? The world of anarchy is a different world from the others, as it lacks a top-down structure, making destructive groups less tangible. The first commandment is to be free from any hierarchy, any order, any decision imposed from above, any superstructure in which there is someone making decisions for someone else. They call them masters. In fact, the number one enemy is the state.

Anarchists operate in local cells of several people, ready to act on orders from private websites. Dressed strictly in black, they act in groups when necessary. All in a flat organization, hard to map by inspectors.

Alfredo Cospito is the leader of Fai, an acronym that denotes at least two groups: the unofficial anarchist federation and the Italian anarchist federation. Close to Fai also Fri: International Revolutionary Front. Exact figures for how many anarchists are in the country, and perhaps the most stubborn militants, are also difficult to separate from sympathizers. But we are talking about hundreds of people. I am against any kind of control; against the fast train; Against Tav; Against Cie, ie Centers for the identification and deportation of immigrants; Against the green transition and fiber optics.

Difficult prison issue (41 en)

Another issue that should not be underestimated is the case of Cospito’s punishment, because this is the very reason why he went on hunger strike for more than a hundred days. He stated that he had undertaken this form of protest against 41 bis and that he would not stop until it was removed, that it would not be enough for them to take it away. In fact, this type of imprisonment applies not only to those convicted of mafia crimes, but also to those who actively participate in a subversive organization and thus aim to subvert the political and social order of a State by using violence. That is terrorism and subversion.

According to Cospito, the prison is the 41st regime of the Rome Surveillance Court on April 20. But how does a prisoner in 41 bis live? Here are some features based on the penal system and subsequent ministry circulars:

• Isolation from other inmates.
• Broadcast time is limited.
• The prisoner is constantly monitored by a special division of the prison police, which does not come into contact with other prison police.
• Limitation of interviews with family members, both in terms of quantity and quality (given in division and without physical contact).
• The number and duration of meetings with a lawyer are unlimited.
• Visa control of outgoing and incoming mail.
• Limitation of the amount, goods and objects that can be kept in the overnight rooms as well as the items that can be taken from outside.
• Exclusion from representation of detainees and internees.

Among the factors giving weight to the decision to sentence Cospito to heavy imprisonment is the injunction issued by the Perugia Prosecutor against Alfredo Cospito. Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the context of the fact-finding investigation into the wiretapping issue, prosecutor Raffaele Cantone said: “We challenged the specific hypothesis that he was incited to commit crimes while in prison.”

The reason why Cospito is in 41 bis becomes even clearer when considering the logic on which the law was created to shoot mafia in prisons, which aims to prevent prisoners from carrying out mafia or terrorist activities in any case. from the cell, it communicates with the outside in any way. And since Cospito also had contact with his family from prison, the anarchist also dropped to 41 bis. The first anarchist in history.