San Paolo hospital – Dark Nights

Italy: Updates on Alfredo’s health status after interrupting the hunger strike

Posted on 2023/04/28 - 2023/04/28 by darknights

Updates on Alfredo’s health status after interrupting the hunger strike (April 27, 2023)

Alfredo is starting to eat again (although more slowly than he would like, heh! heh!), little by little he is also reintroducing pasta and solid foods, following the dietician’s suggestions.

The overall values are quite good. There seems to be a slight improvement in the condition of the foot to which he had lost feeling, but for the moment according to the doctors it is not possible to venture a prognosis, in any case he is walking a little better.

He is still in the prison ward of San Paolo, anxious to leave the hospital, since at the moment he cannot take advantage of even the air time and essentially never leaves the room/cell, which is even deprived of natural light; doctors however say he should stay there at least another week. His mood is good; in short, he is recovering.

He will continue to receive visits from the lawyer and the medical officer, so updates will follow.

He is hardly receiving any mail, but we urge everyone to equally burden the censors with letters and telegrams, let them earn their filthy wages! We remind that to write to him the Opera address applies even if he is in the hospital:

Alfredo Cospito
Casa di Reclusione di Milano Opera
via Camporgnago 40
20141 Milano

(To read the update on the hunger strike interruption, see this article: https://darknights.noblogs.org/post/2023/04/20/rome-italy-about-the-constitutional-court-hearing-on-the-convictions-for-anarchists-alfredo-cospito-and-anna-beniamino-in-the-scripta-manent-trial-anarchist-alfredo-cospito-interrupted-his-hunger-strike/).

[Received by e-mail and published at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/04/27/aggiornamenti-sullo-stato-di-salute-di-alfredo-dopo-linterruzione-dello-sciopero-della-fame-27-aprile-2023/]

Rome, Italy: About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial + Anarchist Alfredo Cospito ‘interrupted’ his hunger strike undertaken since Oct. 20 [Corrected]

Posted on 2023/04/20 - 2023/04/28 by darknights

DN Note: We have been informed by comrades in Italy that comrade Alfredo has only interrupted his hunger strike, that the isolation that is 41 bis prevents us knowing what his real motivations are at present.

About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial (Rome, April 18, 2023)

A hearing was held today in the constitutional court on the case of Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino on charges of political massacre (art. 285 c. p.) within the Scripta Manent trial.

The current Cirielli law (year 2005, Berlusconi government) prevents mitigating factors from outweighing aggravating factors in the case of recidivism. In Alfredo Cospito’s case, in particular, this would have resulted in a certain sentence of hostile life imprisonment despite the fact that the action he and Anna are accused of did not cause any victims.

The court therefore found this provision unconstitutional. More, reading the terse press release that came out of the building, the court seems to have raised constitutionality doubts in general with respect to all those cases in which the fixed penalty is configured solely as life imprisonment.

Recall that Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike for almost 6 months precisely against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment. A struggle for which his comrade is risking his life and during which he may already have suffered permanent neurological damage. A struggle that Alfredo has always reiterated is not just for himself, but for everyone, particularly in solidarity with anarchist, communist and revolutionary prisoners. Today’s decision will have consequences not only for the fate of our comrade, but is a blow, however circumscribed, to the institution of life imprisonment in this country. Continue reading “Rome, Italy: About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial + Anarchist Alfredo Cospito ‘interrupted’ his hunger strike undertaken since Oct. 20 [Corrected]” →

Italy: Important updates on the prison and health conditions of anarchist Alfredo Cospito (April 5, 2023)

Posted on 2023/04/06 by darknights

Important updates on the detention and health conditions of anarchist Alfredo Cospito

Alfredo has NOT ended his hunger strike!
The reports that have been circulating in the media these days are false and slanderous, as is now the custom in this story: he was offered milk, but Alfredo refused it. If he decides to start feeding again, he will follow the instructions given to him by his trusted doctor long ago.
Ahead of the April 18 hearing, he decided to resume supplements: potassium to stabilize his heart, vitamins to try to curb the neurological problem in his lower limbs, and protein. After the hearing at the Constitutional Court in Rome, which is called to rule on the legal legitimacy in granting or not granting mitigating factors in relation to the conviction for 285 c. p. (“massacre for the purpose of attacking the security of the State,” which only provides for life imprisonment) decreed by the Cassation as part of the Scripta Manent trial, he will decide how to proceed.

He is tired and at times struggles to maintain concentration, but he is lucid and present.
In the prison ward of San Paolo, he is NOT getting mail, not even telegrams.
They are NOT delivering books to him, not even the ones he bought through the Opera prison after authorization.
In the room where he is hospitalized he has only artificial light, it is not possible for him to distinguish day from night.
And finally, the doctors in the prison medicine department at San Paolo, who are following Alfredo, still have a provision not to talk and confront the doctor of trust, but to hand over only medical records. Which in fact prevents him from being cared for in the best way.

LET’S CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE ALONGSIDE ALFREDO!

LET US SEND HIM OUR ANGER AND LOVE, SO THAT HE MAY FEEL THAT THOSE WHO STRUGGLE ARE NEVER ALONE!

[April 5, 2023]

[Received by e-mail and posted at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/04/05/aggiornamenti-importanti-sulle-condizioni-detentive-e-di-salute-dellanarchico-alfredo-cospito-5-aprile-2023/]

Italy: Letter from Alfredo Cospito and update on the latest transfer to San Paolo Hospital on March 6

Posted on 2023/03/16 by darknights

Letter from Alfredo Cospito and update on the latest transfer to San Paolo Hospital on March 6

On Monday, March 6 (the 138th day of his hunger strike) Alfredo Cospito was again transferred from Opera Prison to San Paolo Hospital. Recall that the comrade had been an inmate in the Intensive Assistance Service (SAI) inside the Opera prison since Jan. 30, on Feb. 11 transferred for the first time to San Paolo Hospital, and then transferred again to Opera on the 27th of the same month (following the hearing on the 24th in the court of cassation), remaining there for a week, until this last transfer to San Paolo on March 6.

Following the outcome of the Feb. 24 hearing at the court of cassation (which rejected the petition to revoke his detention in 41 bis, further ratifying what had already been decided by the Rome supervisory court in its Dec. 1 hearing), Alfredo stopped taking the mild supplements he had been taking for some time.

Also in the same days as the latest transfer, on March 6, the opinion requested by the Ministry of Justice from the National Bioethics Committee on the possible medical intervention in Alfredo, that is, on force-feeding in case of loss of consciousness, was released. The CNB stresses that it has “no legal, political, moral or ethical legitimacy to formulate an ‘ad personam’ opinion” (and “consequently, the CNB’s response is of a general nature”), without even issuing an unambiguous opinion, thus dividing itself between the “pro-life” and the “pro-choice” (according to the latter, the Anticipated Treatment Arrangement should be respected in any case).

On March 1, during a press conference, Alfredo’s lawyer disclosed a hitherto undisclosed letter-statement by the comrade, plausibly dating back at least a month. We publish its full transcript here. Recall that to date, due to the systematic censorship inherent in 41 bis, it has not yet been possible to read the comrade’s first statement regarding the beginning of the hunger strike, dating back to October 20. The only statement published to date, other than this letter disclosed on March 1, was the one for the December 5 hearing in Turin as part of the Scripta Manent trial.

The state’s choice to annihilate the comrade poses the need to place, once again, no hope in the outcomes of the courts or in the opinions of the various structures deputed to express their views on the contradictions that have opened up in state bodies as a result of the hunger strike and with the development of the international solidarity movement. These are, especially with regard to the courts of the Italian state, structures and figures directly responsible for the very serious conditions in which Alfredo Cospito finds himself. The state, first with the transfer of the comrade in 41 bis on May 5 and later with the cassation ruling of the Scripta Manent trial on July 6, intended to give a warning to the anarchist and revolutionary movement. A warning that after the outcomes of the hearings of the Rome parole court on Dec. 1 and the court of cassation on Feb. 24 was expressed even more clearly, taking the form of a will to total annihilation against the comrade.

To the attempted annihilation against Alfredo and the constant mass-media campaign of slander the whole anarchist movement we respond with the clarity of our ideas and the tenacity of our practices.

Letter from Alfredo Cospito

My struggle against 41 bis is an individual struggle as an anarchist; I do not do or receive blackmail. I simply cannot live in an inhumane regime like 41 bis, where I cannot freely read what I want, books, newspapers, anarchist periodicals, art, scientific and literature and history magazines.

The only chance I have to get out is to deny my anarchy and sell me someone to put in my place. A regime where I cannot have any human contact, where I can no longer see or stroke a blade of grass or hug a loved one. A regime where photos of your parents are confiscated. Buried alive in a grave, in a place of death. I will carry on my struggle to the bitter end, not because of “blackmail,” but because this is not life. If the goal of the Italian state is to make me “disassociate” myself from the actions of the anarchists outside, know that I do not suffer blackmail. As a good anarchist I believe that everyone is responsible for his own actions, and as a member of the anti-organizational current I have never “associated” with anyone and therefore cannot “disassociate” myself from anyone. Affinity is something else. Continue reading “Italy: Letter from Alfredo Cospito and update on the latest transfer to San Paolo Hospital on March 6” →

Italy: Alfredo Cospito was transferred again to the Opera prison in Milan

Posted on 2023/03/01 by darknights

Alfredo Cospito was transferred again to the Opera prison in Milan (Feb. 27, 2022)

We learn that today, Feb. 27, anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike for 131 days, was transferred from the prison medical ward located in San Paolo Hospital to the Intensive Care Service (SAI) inside Opera Prison in Milan, where he was already before being transferred to San Paolo on Feb. 11.

The February 24 hearing in the Court of Cassation, which upheld the order of detention under 41 bis, definitively ratified the state’s will to annihilate the comrade, which had already been defined in December with the outcome of the hearing in the Rome surveillance court. This latest transfer from San Paolo to Opera is perfectly in line with that will of annihilation. They intend to destroy a comrade and with him they believe they are giving a warning to the revolutionary struggle in this country. The intent, however, is in vain: the need to fight against the state and capital is ineradicable, the desire to overthrow this authoritarian social reality is inextinguishable.

DEATH TO THE STATE, ALWAYS FOR ANARCHY

The comrade’s address is:

Alfredo Cospito
Casa di Reclusione di Milano Opera
via Camporgnago 40
20141 Milano

Source: La Nemesi

Rome, Italy: Gathering at the court of cassation during the hearing on the appeal against the order of detention in 41 bis for Alfredo Cospito (Rome, Feb. 24, 2023)

Posted on 2023/02/21 by darknights

On February 24, the Court of Cassation will hold a hearing at the Court of Cassation on the appeal against the order of the Rome Court of Supervision, which, in its December 1 hearing, upheld the 41 bis detention order for anarchist Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment for more than 120 days. Recall that on Feb. 11, the 115th day of his hunger strike, the comrade was transferred from Opera prison to San Paolo Hospital, Milan, to one of the rooms reserved for 41 bis inmates inside the prison medicine ward.

Gathering at the court of cassation during the hearing for the appeal against the order of detention in 41 bis for Alfredo Cospito (Rome, Feb. 24, 2023)

The clock is ticking-the mobilization does not stop. For more than four months Alfredo continues to fight and we with him. On February 24, the cassation is called to rule about the revocation of 41 bis to Alfredo Cospito. We will be there, from 11 a.m., in garrison. As always by his side. Everyone and everyone in Piazza Cavour in Rome. Get Alfredo out of 41 bis.

Gathering in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike to the bitter end: at 11:00 a.m. in front of the Court of Cassation, in Piazza Cavour, Rome.

Source: La Nemesi

Athens, Greece: ‘Until the demolition of every prison. Always with anarchy.’ Document of the Open Assembly of Anarchists for the initiative in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito in front of the Italian Embassy

Posted on 2023/02/21 by darknights

‘Until the demolition of every prison. Always with anarchy.’ Document of the Open Assembly of Anarchists for the initiative in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito in front of the Italian Embassy (Athens, Greece, Feb. 16, 2023)

We publish “Until the demolition of every prison. Always with anarchy,” the call for the Feb. 16 initiative in front of the Italian Embassy in Athens in solidarity with anarchist Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike to the bitter end. The enormous movement of international solidarity that has manifested itself in recent months is proof of how to the isolation and censorship of the state and its prisons we will always oppose the tenacity and consistency of our ideas and practices. This text and the initiative of the Open Assembly of Anarchists, reaffirming the perspective of international revolutionary solidarity, are a further contribution in this regard.

* * *

UNTIL THE DEMOLITION OF EVERY PRISON. ALWAYS WITH ANARCHY

Because for those who love life, reacting when it is turned into surviving is a necessary act.
– Anna Beniamino, “Declaration of beginning hunger strike,” Nov. 7, 2022

Alfredo Cospito, imprisoned anarchist convicted of the crime “massacre” in the “Scripta Manent” trial – a charge concerning the double explosive attack on the Carabinieri Cadet School in Fossano, claimed by Rivolta Anonima e Tremenda / Federazione Anarchica Informale (RAT/FAI) – has been on hunger strike against the 41 bis prison regime and hostile life imprisonment since Oct. 20, when he was imprisoned in the Bancali prison in Sassari, Sardinia. Since May 5, and after ten years in prison, the state has chosen to reinforce the isolation of the comrade (who until then had contributed significantly to the debate among anarchists with letters, articles and interventions) through the detention regime provided for in Article 41 bis of the Italian Prison Order (the carcere duro), a law-abomination that, in essence, requalifies imprisonment into a form of special isolation even on the intellectual and sensory level. It is a suffocating stranglehold that almost completely nullifies communication and contact with the outside world, a torture of psychosomatic annihilation against militants in order to force them to political “repentance.”

Moreover, the purpose of this regime is to create a barrier to revolutionary-antiauthoritarian dialogue between comrades inside and outside prisons. Systematic censorship and the attempt to annihilate the very existence of political prisoners reveal the teeth of democracy and the fear of authoritarian forces of those who carry and spread the seed of revolt and attack for the demolition of the world of the state and capital.

Alfredo Cospito, a continuer of anarchist discourse and practice, raises the shield of the hunger strike to repel the vindictiveness of the state apparatus. The Italian state, with its fascist practices-through the last elections and beyond-has a long history of confrontational tension with anarchists, its enemies who over the years have had trials and investigations for their actions and beliefs, even at the cost of death.

Also imprisoned in the same annihilation regime are three political prisoners, members of the Red Brigades for the Construction of the Combatant Communist Party (BR-PCC) arrested in 2003, Nadia Lioce, Marco Mezzasalma and Roberto Morandi, while Diana Blefari – also a member of the BR-PCC and a longtime prisoner in the solitary confinement of the 41 bis regime – committed suicide in 2009.

With the approval of the new Penal Code and with the even more recent approval of the new Penitentiary Code by the Greek state, “maximum security” prisons or wards now have as their purpose “increased supervision” of “unruly” prisoners, apart, of course, from political prisoners, convicted under the main counterrevolutionary legal instrument par excellence applied to guerrilla warfare, 187A; all seven years after the abolition of Type C prisons thanks to the struggle waged through hunger strikes by political prisoners at the time. This latest development in the state’s legal arsenal is nothing less than a tendency to absolutize prison conditions, also placing a regulation on social confinement with surveillance and control outside the confines of the prison and opening a serious possibility for the introduction of solitary confinement and torture models (similar to 41 bis) in Greek prisons as well. Prisoners in Korydallos and Domokos prisons are still engaged in resistance mobilizations against the new and further authoritarian Penitentiary Code. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: ‘Until the demolition of every prison. Always with anarchy.’ Document of the Open Assembly of Anarchists for the initiative in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito in front of the Italian Embassy” →

Milan, Italy: Demonstration alongside Alfredo Cospito on 115th day of hunger strike against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment

Posted on 2023/02/15 - 2023/02/15 by darknights

Demonstration alongside Alfredo Cospito on 115th day of hunger strike against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment (Milan, Feb. 11, 2023)

Last night [Saturday, Feb. 11] demonstration in Milan alongside Alfredo Cospito against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment.

The demonstration started from Piazza XXIV Maggio attempting to reach Porta Romana, just before the end of the demonstration the rapid response units at the head of the procession deployed preventing them from continuing. The participants managed not to get blocked in the street and, defending themselves with what the street furniture offered, managed several times not to get closed by the increasingly agitated and fierce cops.

By the end of the day there were about ten detentions, now all released, a few dented cops, some Eni-Enjoy cars [vehicles of Eni’s car sharing service] damaged and shattered windows of real estate agencies, supermarkets and banks.

During the demonstration Alfredo Cospito was being transferred to San Paolo Hospital in Milan.

This morning, however, news broke that the Cassation Prosecutor’s Office in its indictment filed ahead of the hearing set for next February 24 asked to annul the decision of the Supervisory Court that had confirmed 41 bis for Alfredo.

Stay tuned for upcoming events!

[Taken from some ~~facebook~~ pages & republished at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/02/14/corteo-al-fianco-di-alfredo-cospito-al-115esimo-giorno-di-sciopero-della-fame-contro-il-41-bis-e-lergastolo-ostativo-milano-11-febbraio-2023/ | Photographs taken from ~~mass-media~~]

Continue reading “Milan, Italy: Demonstration alongside Alfredo Cospito on 115th day of hunger strike against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment” →

Italy: Updates about the transfer of Alfredo Cospito to the San Paolo hospital and on the prosecutor general’s request to overturn the 41 bis measure in view of the cassation hearing of February 24

Posted on 2023/02/13 by darknights

Updates about the transfer of Alfredo Cospito to the San Paolo hospital and on the prosecutor general’s request to overturn the 41 bis measure in view of the cassation hearing of February 24 (Italy)

We publish two important updates concerning the transfer, which took place on February 11th, of anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito to the San Paolo hospital and the request for annulment of the 41 bis measure by the prosecutor general at the Court of Cassation in view of the hearing to be held on February 24th at the Cassation itself following the appeal against the order of the Surveillance Court of Rome which, with the hearing of December 1st, confirmed detention under 41 bis.

We recall that on February 9th the minister of justice Carlo Nordio announced the rejection of the formal request for revocation of the 41 bis that had been made by the comrade’s lawyer. This was despite the opinion of the Direzione Nazionale Antimafia e Antiterrorismo (DNAA, ‘National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate’), which, responding to the minister who was gathering the opinions of various repressive bodies, had said it was in favour of maintaining the 41 bis or alternatively of transferring him to Alta Sicurezza 2 (AS2, ‘High Security 2’, high security sections intended mainly for anarchists and communists). Therefore, currently, as far as the revocation of the 41 bis is concerned, the only pronouncement expected is that of the Court of Cassation (which is only in Rome) with the hearing on February 24th.

Revolutionary solidarity with Alfredo Cospito and all imprisoned anarchists and revolutionaries! Alfredo out from 41 bis!

Alfredo Cospito transferred from Opera prison to San Paolo hospital (Milan, February 11, 2023)

On February 11th, the 115th day of hunger strike against 41 bis prison regime and life imprisonment without possibility of parole, anarchist Alfredo Cospito was transferred from Opera prison (where he had been an imprisoned since January 30th in the Servizio di Assistenza Intensificata, SAI, Intensified Assistance Service) to the San Paolo hospital (also located in Milan), in one of the rooms reserved for prisoners on 41 bis in the prison medicine ward. The transfer was ordered by the Department of Penitentiary Administration following the indications of the doctors. The comrade, according to February 11th, weighs 71 kg (the starting weight at the beginning of the hunger strike was 115 kg) and is in extremely critical health condition. As reported by the doctor who examined the comrade in the morning: ‘he is at risk of cerebral oedema and potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmias’.

Regarding the prosecutor general’s request to overturn the 41 bis measure against Alfredo Cospito in view of the cassation hearing of February 24

The Agnelli family’s [multi-industry business dynasty founded by Giovanni Agnelli, one of the original founders of the FIAT motor company which became Italy’s largest automobile manufacturer] newspapers (‘La Repubblica’ and ‘La Stampa’) revealed in this morning’s (February 12th) edition that the prosecutor general at the Court of Cassation had filed a request for the overturn of the 41 bis measure against Alfredo Cospito in view of the hearing on February 24th in Rome. This is undoubtedly good news, but it should not be overestimated. Naturally because as anarchists we have no faith in bourgeois justice, specifically because it is not uncommon for the cassation to take more radical decisions than those requested by the prosecution itself.

Finally, we cannot forget that Alfredo’s health situation is very serious and that February 24th may be too far away, which could turn out to be a terrible hoax.

We persevere in our claim for an immediate declassification of our comrade, convinced that any outcome will depend solely on the struggle to the last breath that Alfredo has put up and on the international solidarity movement that has been expressed.

* * *

(IT) Aggiornamenti sul trasferimento di Alfredo Cospito all’ospedale San Paolo e a proposito della richiesta di annullamento del provvedimento di 41 bis da parte del procuratore generale in vista dell’udienza in cassazione del 24 febbraio
(EN) Updates about the transfer of Alfredo Cospito to the San Paolo hospital and on the prosecutor general’s request to overturn the 41 bis measure in view of the cassation hearing of February 24 (Italy)