A convicted Italian anarchist .who has been on hunger strike for weeks has Been.; moved to a Milan prison amid growing fears that his health is deteriorating.
Supporters of Alfredo Cospito, 55, torched cars and threatened officials to protest prison conditions.
Cospito has been refusing food for over 100 days.
The new restrictions, usually reserved for mob bosses, include one monitored visit with family members and one phone call per month.
The measure, known as Article 41bis of the Italian Criminal Code, was introduce in its current form in 1992, following the mafia murders of judges Paolo Falcone and Giovanni Borsellino, and was originally; intended to cut off mafia bosses from the outside world. Other inmates and prevent them from ordering crimes from behind bars.
But now the 41bis prison regime can be granted” to people who have been found guilty of crimes ranging from terrorism to tobacco smuggling and kidnapping.
Critics of 41bis – including ex-prisoners who have experienced it – say the solitude faced by those who Experience it. It is “unbearable” the cells are barely big enough for a bed.
In addition to receiving only one monitor visit from family members per month, they are also prohibit from socializing with other inmates or seeing third parties, must spend one hour of recess per day in solitary confinement, have no access to the prison’s common areas, and are under 24/7 supervision.
Some legal experts have said that 41bi”, is a “medieval form of punishment;
Lawyers for far-left terrorist Nadi Lioce, who has living under the 41bis regime for two decades, said she effectively only communicates with people due to strict limits on the.
Italian media report that Lioce’s lawyers said she is now so “psychologically isolate” that when her mother and sister visit her, she is unable to” speak to them for more than a few minutes.
Several aspects of 41bis have criticize” by Amnesty International and the European Court of Human Rights, and in 2007 a US court refused to extradite a convicted mafia drug trafficker because the 41bis regime he would face in Italy would “constitute torture;
Cospito is serving two prison sentences – 10 years for a gun attack on the CEO of a nuclear engineering company in Genoa in 2012 and 20 years in prison for the bombings of the Carabinieri police school in Fossano, organized in prison” His partner also serves.
On Monday, he was transfer from a prison in Sardinia to the Milan Opera House – a facility for prisoners who need urgent medical attention. He lost more than 40 kg (6.2 stone) during his hunger strike, but the government refused to lift the terms of his imprisonment.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government would not be intimidate by threats of violence.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said on Tuesday that the spate of violence and vandalism in recent days showed that there was still a connection between Cospit and other anarchists, “this would tend to justify the maintenance of 41bis”.
Protests against his imprisonment included attacks against Italian diplomats in Germany and Spain. ‘Or Greece, as well as South America. Threatening letters containing bullets; were sent to officials.
In the most serious. Attack; the car of senior diplomat Susanna Schlein was destroy” by a petrol bomb in Athens in early December.
Several cars were set on fire in other incidents in Rome and Milan on Monday evening.
”Cospit’s case should be heard; by the Italian, Supreme Court in March;