A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #6-25: The Power of Brutality. 41 bis, life imprisonment and political delirium (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

January 2023. With an indefinite hunger strike, the anarchist Cospito is 
forcing the entire country to question the legitimacy of 41 bis, the 
very harsh prison regime to which he is subjected. The anarchist's 
determination is bringing to light the issue of respect for the human 
rights of prisoners in general, and of those subjected to differentiated 
prison regimes, one of the great repressed issues of Italian public 
debate. The most right-wing government in the history of the republic, 
installed only a few months earlier, is in difficulty. ---- But the 
Melonian deputy Donzelli believes he has the winning card to change the 
narrative: he has proof that Cospito spoke to a convicted mafia member, 
receiving solidarity from him. Coincidentally, it happened on the same 
day that some left-wing parliamentarians (not invited) went to visit the 
anarchist. It is shown in a report by the Penitentiary Police, which 
recorded the conversation.

All hell breaks loose. On January 31, the deputy Donzelli, with 
ostentatious indignation, reveals the content of the report to the 
Chamber: "Is this left on the side of the State or of the terrorists 
with the mafia?".

This is how low the level of parliamentary debate has fallen. Words that 
would not even deserve a reply if it were not for the fact that, without 
wanting to assume the official defense of the accused parliamentarians, 
they offer an opportunity to remember what it means to be subjected to 
41 bis. Total censorship of correspondence; limitation of conversations 
with family members, which take place behind a glass partition; limited 
access to the media, arbitrarily chosen by the prison administration; 
absurd food bans. You are locked in isolation for twenty-two hours a day 
and the hour of fresh air takes place in small courtyards under strict 
surveillance; the prisoner is allowed to meet with a maximum of three 
other prisoners, obviously subjected to the same regime and chosen by 
the administration.

And we come to the alleged scandal flaunted by the deputy of Fratelli 
d'Italia. The anarchist spoke with a convicted mafia inmate and received 
his solidarity.

And what scandal would that be? If Cospito spoke with a convicted mafia 
inmate, it is because, literally, he was the only human being with whom 
the prison administration had allowed him to do so.

The inmates subjected to the torture of 41 bis in Italy are around 700; 
all (except Cospito and the BR-NCC Lioce, Mezzasalma and Morandi) are 
convicted mafia inmates. Who could Cospito have confronted if not other 
inmates subjected to 41 bis? From whom could he have received solidarity 
for a battle in the name of equality in the struggle if not from others, 
subjected to the same regime?

For having disclosed the contents of the report to his MP and party 
colleague (and, it seems, roommate), Andrea Delmastro, undersecretary of 
justice in the Meloni government, has now been sentenced in the first 
instance to 8 months in prison.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, which had requested acquittal for 
the defendant due to a lack of subjective evidence, Delmastro did not 
know, when he disclosed them, that they were secret information. The 
Court's assessment was different.

Without going into too much detail, so, even at first glance, the 
content of a conversation between prisoners under 41 bis is a somewhat 
confidential thing: difficult (or serious) that an undersecretary of 
justice, who is also a lawyer, could ignore it.

What remains, at the end of this story, is Cospito's determination to 
carry on, even at the risk of his own life, the battle against the 
detention conditions to which prisoners under 41 bis are subjected, and 
perhaps the best way to remember her was offered by the deputy Donzelli 
himself, revealing his words to Parliament: "It must be a fight against 
the 41 bis regime and against life imprisonment without parole: it must 
not be a fight just for me. For me, we in 41 bis are all the same".

Eugenio Losco, criminal lawyer

https://umanitanova.org/il-potere-della-brutalita-41-bis-ergastolo-ostativo-e-delirio-politico/
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