The documents have been forwarded not only to the Turin Supervisory Court but also to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Turin Court of Appeal and to the Milan Supervisory Office. It was precisely the latter that, also today, raised a negative conflict of jurisdiction with the Turin Supervisory Office, arguing that the Piedmontese capital has jurisdiction to rule on the application filed on 17 July. It is up to the Court of Cassation to resolve the conflict in this case. “I believe it is necessary for everyone to tone down their rhetoric and allow the judiciary the means and time to do its job,” says Milan’s Chief Public Prosecutor Marcello Viola, commenting on the social media attacks against the magistrates who convicted the jeweller and the political tensions that have flared up over the issue of self-defence. For Viola, the point is also to “try to assess the situation after having carefully read the reasoning behind the rulings. But above all, we must work to restore calm and return to an institutional relationship that also helps to avoid excesses such as those we have seen in recent days”. A call for balance came from the Deputy Minister for Justice, Francesco Paolo Sisto, regarding the political debate, urging the safeguarding of “self-defence, which does not, however, make any reaction lawful”. From former magistrate Simonetta Matone, a Lega MP, came a call to Roggero “to embark on a path of repentance, which I urge him to undertake immediately”.
The Supreme Court’s ruling
The Court of Cassation had definitively upheld the sentence of 14 years and 9 months for Mario Roggero, who was accused of having killed two robbers, Giuseppe Mazzarino and Andrea Spinelli , and wounding a third on 28 April 2021, following a robbery at his shop. The decision, handed down by the First Criminal Section of the Court of Cassation, came after five years of proceedings, following an appeal by Roggero’s defence team. The Supreme Court had rejected the appeal lodged by the defendant’s defence counsel, thereby making the ruling handed down in December last year by the Turin Court of Assizes of Appeal final. Roggero, now 72, killed two robbers – 58-year-old Giuseppe Mazzarino and 44-year-old Andrea Spinelli – on 28 April 2021, following the raid on his shop. The gang’s driver, Alessandro Modica, was wounded but managed to escape. Both at the first-instance trial in Asti and on appeal, the judges had rejected the defendant’s claim of putative self-defence. Roggero chased the robbers, armed with a toy gun and a knife, through the car park after the robbery had already ended, firing a series of shots from his gun at their car. “The aggressive action on the part of the robbers had completely ended,” the appeal judges had written in the grounds for their judgement. A video reconstructs the events. The robbers enter the jewellery shop and threaten Roggero, his wife and daughter with a knife and a toy gun; the safe is emptied, and they flee. Roggero fires four shots at the car, which the robbers do not have time to start. Modica was shot in the leg; Mazzarino, already unconscious, tried to hide behind the car, where he died. Spinelli fell whilst fleeing; Roggero kicked him in the head and back. The robber gets back to his feet and dies. It is the jeweller himself who calls 112. In the judges’ view, by opening fire whilst the robbers were fleeing, Roggero overstepped the law, becoming both ‘judge and executioner’.
The appeal for a pardon to Mattarella
Lega leader Matteo Salvini has also taken to social media to share his message in support of the convicted jeweller: “So many, so very many of us stand with Mario Roggero. We are calling for a pardon for him! A father, a grandfather, a husband and a lifelong worker, who at the age of 72 is being sent to prison because he reacted to an assault, a theft and a robbery in his shop – the family shop – with his wife and daughter present and at risk. I consider this sentence to be unjust.” “We have fought together,” he adds, “for a new law on self-defence, which has spared many decent citizens suffering and imprisonment, but clearly this is not enough and we must further extend the sacrosanct right to self-defence for those who are attacked. And we will do so. We must also ensure, by law, that no ‘compensation for damages’ is paid to the relatives of thieves who are injured or killed as a result of their crimes. For Mario now, together with all of you, I will do everything possible to ensure he is granted a pardon. An appeal we are addressing directly to the President of the Republic. A pardon for an honest man who, at 72 years of age and after a life of sacrifice, does not deserve to share a cell with real criminals.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Forza Italia leader Antonio Tajani has also expressed his support for a pardon: “He is guilty; he made a mistake; however, I believe this person should be granted social forgiveness through a pardon.” The Forza Italia leadership, whilst clarifying that the decision to grant a pardon rests with the Head of State, points out that “the Minister of Justice prepares the preliminary investigations in conjunction with the relevant judicial authorities”. Being in favour of a pardon, he adds, “does not mean putting pressure on the Head of State”. “That said,” he insists, “this is a guilty person, so I am not contesting the verdict or those who handed it down; I am simply saying that social forgiveness is the right thing to do.” Tajani also reiterates that “the current laws are laws that guarantee self-defence”, but “once the danger has passed, there is no longer self-defence; there is an excess of self-defence”.
