On Feb. 13, the setting of the review hearing on precautionary measures was notified for comrades targeted for measures in the November 11, 2021 Sibilla repressive operation (including Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike for more than 120 days, and Gianluca, who is currently under house arrest in the Diamante investigation by the Genoa prosecutor’s office). The hearing is set for March 14 at the court in Perugia.
This second re-examination stemmed from the hearing held on June 22 in Rome at the court of cassation, which concluded by granting prosecutor Manuela Comodi’s request, thus annulling the previous order of the review court (which on Dec. 16, 2021 had resulted in the revocation of the precautionary measures). The court of cassation, in spite of what had been expressed by the attorney general (who had called for the rejection of the Perugian prosecutor’s appeal), had thus “exhumed” the investigation by annulling the revocation of the measures and ordering a new review hearing.
Operation Sibilla, carried out by the Carabinieri’s Special Operational Group and the Perugia prosecutor’s office under the coordination of the National Anti-Mafia and Counterterrorism Directorate, played a key role in the genesis and application of the 41 bis detention order for comrade Alfredo Cospito.
Eight comrades (including Alfredo himself), previously investigated by the ROS and the Milan Prosecutor’s Office in another case for 270 bis c. p. (subversive association for the purpose of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order) and 414 c. p. (incitement to commit a crime, with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism) in connection with the editing, publication and distribution of the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo,” had been the subject in September 2021, by the Perugia prosecutor’s office, of a request for precautionary measures in prison on the same charges, plus other charges for various reasons relating to additional articles, leaflets and documents, as well as wall writings and for one comrade to a damage to some Poste Italiane cars (Foligno, June 6, 2019) in solidarity with anarchist comrades on hunger strike over the closure of the High Security 2 section of the L’Aquila prison.
At the same time as this request for arrest, a three-month censure order on correspondence was ordered for comrade Alfredo Cospito, which was subsequently renewed several times. The reasons for this censure became clear only a couple of months later, when – with the November 11 operation – the Sibilla investigation “emerged” and PM Comodi’s original request was downgraded by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations. Thus, a new order established no longer eight arrests in prison but six precautionary measures in relation only to the charge of incitement to commit crimes with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism: an arrest warrant for Alfredo Cospito (at the time imprisoned in Terni Prison); house arrest with all restrictions for a comrade from Spoleto; and an obligation to stay in the municipality of residence jointly with the obligation to sign three days a week for four comrades. In addition, other comrades turned out to be under investigation at large, countless searches were carried out, and two websites (roundrobin.info and malacoda.noblogs.org) were subjected to preventive seizure and blacked out (a practically unprecedented fact as far as the Italian-speaking anarchist movement is concerned), remaining unreachable to this day with conventional search engines.
According to the ROS of the Carabinieri, the Milan and Perugia public prosecutors’ offices and the DNAA, especially in “Vetriolo,” as well as in the other texts under indictment, “strategic concepts were expressed in the orientation and mechanism of instigatory propaganda having the concrete capacity to provoke the commission of specific non-culpable crimes against the international and internal personality of the State, in order to subvert through the practice of violence its legal, political, economic and social order.” In this sense, in order to highlight the “correspondence between the contents of “Vetriolo” and some direct actions,” the ROS – in search of lexical and conceptual similarities, likenesses or coincidences – had undertaken in the more extensive pre-Sibilla investigation a work of comparison between the articles published in the first issues of the newspaper and the claim texts of some incendiary and explosive attacks that occurred in Italy, France and Greece. This “theorization” of “strategic concepts in the orientation and mechanism of instigatory propaganda” (which arose out of the repressive needs of the Italian state in recent years and was closely linked to the crime of 414 c. p. c.) later turned out to be central-along with the conviction for 270 bis c. p. in the Scripta Manent trial-for the application of 41 bis to Alfredo and has also been variously reported lately by some political and institutional leaders of the attempted annihilation against the comrade. As pointed out by some of the suspects, “by claiming that Alfredo ‘instigated’ from prison to commit revolutionary actions, [the Sibilla investigation] constitutes a good reason to support the need to prevent him from any communication with the outside. We take it upon ourselves to firmly denounce what we believe happened. It is clear that the cassation received appropriate solicitations for the Sibyl operation to be kept alive, albeit in intensive care. A decision made over and above the prosecutor general’s own requests, the delay in the motivations, the captiousness of them, all of this speaks to us of the need to keep standing, while grasping at straws, a specific charge of incitement against Alfredo.” In light of the repressive events retraced in this update and especially the current grave situation of the comrade on hunger strike, it is clear how the figures-cardinal to the investigations that led to Operation Sibilla-are among those responsible for the application of 41 bis.
In the immediate, not in the bright future, it is solidarity in revolutionary action that can break this isolation and can destroy the jails. Today as yesterday, against all resignation and bewilderment, we continue to firmly believe and bet in the same solidarity, in the same urgent need for action.
In anticipation of the cassation hearing on Feb. 24 and the review hearing on March 14, we continue to support the mobilization, in particular by inviting comrades and solidarity activists to the initiative “And how we will remember!” to be held on Feb. 23 in Foligno on Monte Bianco Street starting at 4 p.m. We support all anarchist and revolutionary initiatives in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito and all imprisoned comrades.
Some anarchists investigated and in solidarity
February 18, 2023
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For completeness, we report texts written by comrades under investigation as of November 2021:
– Some suspects and supportive comrades, “Does the Sibilla forecast the storm?“, November 2021
– Roundrobin, “Roundrobin.info communiqué on the November 11 Sibilla crackdown operation,” November 2021 (https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2022/09/05/comunicato-di-roundrobin-info-sulloperazione-repressiva-sibilla-dell11-novembre/).
– Alfredo Cospito, “On Operation Sibilla,” November 2021.
– Michele Fabiani, “The reaction in Italy: Message in the barrel about operation Sibilla” December 2021.
– Francesco Rota Sulis, “White spaces and black letters. About the repressive Operation Sibilla,” January 2022.
Finally, we report a couple of texts written by investigated comrades and one from the Anarchist Circle “La Faglia” following the transfer of Alfredo Cospito to 41 bis in May 2022:
– Some Investigated Anarchists, “An Update and Some Considerations on Operation Sibilla and 41 bis against Anarchist Alfredo Cospito,” June 23, 2022.
– Adriano, Federica, Francesco, Matteo, Michele, Paolo, Sara, “Sibilla Investigation and 41 bis to the anarchist Alfredo Cospito: stance of some suspects,” November 2022.
– Anarchist Circle “La Faglia,” “You bet we’ll remember, and how! About the 41 bis for Alfredo Cospito: Those who are responsible,” February 2023.
PDF: Update on Operation Sibilla: hearing set for Alfredo Cospito and other comrades under investigation at Perugia review court (in Italian)
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