Cospito, 23-year sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court for attack on former Fossano barracks

The anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino were definitively sentenced to 23 years and 17 years and 9 months in prison. This was decided by the Supreme Court in the context of the trial for the attack on the former Carabinieri student barracks in Fossano in 2006. The judges of the sixth section rejected the appeals of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Turin and the defense as requested by the prosecutor. Cospito is currently detained under the 41 bis regime in Sassari prison.

Cospito at 41 bis

Cospito is currently detained under the 41 bis regime in the Sassari prison where he returned in June, after spending over four months in the Opera penitentiary. In fact, he had been transferred to Milan for health reasons resulting from the hunger strike to which the anarchist had undergone – from 20 October 2022 to 19 April 2023 – to protest against the harsh prison regime. The supreme judges therefore accepted the request of the attorney general, who had asked to confirm the sentences imposed in June last year by the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Turin. The representative of the prosecution had requested the rejection of the appeal of the Attorney General of Turin and the inadmissibility of those presented by the defense of the two accused, the lawyers Flavio Rossi Albertini and Caterina Calia. According to the Supreme Court judge, Perla Lori, the damage “actually achieved” in the action “is particularly minor. The decisions made in the contested sentence therefore appear correct”, she added.

The anarchist raids and the sentence

The hearing in the Court of Cassation was anticipated by the actions in solidarity with Cospito and Beniamino carried out by some anarchist militants: with several raids in Rome, bins were in fact set on fire and the windows of some banks and ATMs were damaged. The actions were carried out in the area of ​​the Tuscolano neighborhood where a car was also damaged and the writings “Anna and Alfredo free” appeared on the walls. In the reasons for the appeal sentence, the Turin judges wrote that the 2006 action was “a serious terrorist act” which however had “very modest” repercussions. A “political massacre”, certainly, but without victims and without major damage, and which therefore must be considered “slight”. “The action – we read – had a mild repercussion on the state structure or, in any case, on a part of it (the Carabinieri, ed.), and entailed a very limited risk of damage to the personality of the State and to the democratic order”. The proceeding represents the main part of the maxi-trial of the Fai-Fri, an anarchist group which is attributed to a long series of attacks (explosive packages, placement of bombs) which occurred between 2003 and 2016. As regards the hard prison regime, again on March 20th the Supreme Court of Cassation had declared inadmissible the request presented by the anarchist’s defenders against the decision of the Supervisory Court of Rome which on October 23rd had confirmed the 41 bis for Cospito.

Cospito’s lawyer: “Extremely severe sentence”

“The decision of the Court of Cassation confirms what was argued by the defense during the referral proceedings, namely that the sentence of life imprisonment with one year of daytime isolation invoked by the Turin general prosecutor’s office represented a disproportionate request and not supported by any valid legal reason. However, there remains regret for an extremely severe sentence.” This was stated by the lawyer Flavio Rossi Albertini, defender of Alfredo Cospito, commenting on the decision of the Supreme Court.