Cospito, the European Court 'rejects' the appeal against 41-bis

For the European Court of Human Rights, the application of the special regime of 41-bis for Alfredo Cospito  is legitimate and compatible with his health condition, the deterioration of which is due to the longhunger strike hunger.

In a decision, the Strasbourg judges thus considered Cospito's appeal lodged with the European Court of Human Rights in February 2023 on the alleged 'inhuman' treatment by the state of the anarchist, detained at 41-bis, to be 'manifestly unfounded'. According to the euro-judges, the so-called hard prison does not violate the European Convention, which in Article 3 prohibitsinhuman and degrading treatment. Also denied was the conflict with Article 11, which protects the right to health.

Thus, Cospito's argument in his appeal, according to which the special regime, usually applied in mafia crimes, was arbitrary and constituted inhuman and degrading treatment, also contesting the lack of adequate justification and the severity of the restrictions imposed by a regime that was not compatible with his health conditions, falls. The ECHR, however, endorsed what the Court of Cassation had already ruled, considering the rulings of the domestic judges to be well motivated in justifying 41-bis.

In the opinion of the European judges, 'the ministerial order gives a detailed and personalised description, based on evidence provided by various state bodies and agencies, including, among other things, his criminal record, his criminal convictions, his role within what are defined as subversive associations and, in particular, certain anarchist movements'. In its grounds for a decision, the ECtHR emphasises that the minister relied on evidence concerning the support network to which Cospito had access, as well as the constant presence and current state of activity of these movements in Italy and abroad. Finally, it was established that Cospito, whose numerous communications from prison - including those that the order described as writings advocating the armed struggle and inciting the use of violence in support of the anarchist cause - had contributed, in light of the evidence available to the authorities, to identifying targets and stimulatingattacks against state institutions.

With regard to Cospito's health conditions and their compatibility with the 41 bis and detention in general, on the basis of the evidence at his disposal, what undermined the anarchist's physique - in the view of the Strasbourg judges - was the hunger strike, which began on 20 October 2022 and ended on 9 April 2023, about whose harmful effects the anarchist had been informed by doctors. The domestic courts therefore relied on several medical reports when rejecting the request for a suspended prison sentence on health grounds.