The case

Roggero: Salvini pays another visit to the prison. Meloni: ‘I was the one who called for a pardon’

The Prime Minister: the sentence is disproportionate; stress and fear must be taken into account

by Rome Editorial Staff

19 July 2026

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Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The case of Mario Roggero remains at the centre of the political debate. Whilst Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini visited the Bollate prison for the second consecutive day – where the 72-year-old jeweller from Grinzane Cavour (in the province of Cuneo) – who has been definitively sentenced to 14 years and 9 months in prison for killing two robbers and wounding a third – the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni has also weighed in on the matter: the Prime Minister clarified that it was she who authorised the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, to take steps to initiate a pardon application. “Of course, I told him to go ahead; we must call a spade a spade,” said the Prime Minister in an interview with the Corriere della Sera.

‘It is one thing to have the power to grant the pardon ’ – Meloni emphasises – ‘and no one has ever questioned that this prerogative belongs exclusively to the Quirinale, but that does not prevent the Minister of Justice from conducting the preliminary inquiry’.

Caso Roggero, gioielliere: "Per me è un ergastolo, viva la giustizia italiana"

Meloni: disproportionate punishment; stress and fear must be taken into account

“Who is in a position to judge this man’s pain, trauma, stress and fear? And to all those who do so without giving him the benefit of the doubt, I say quite calmly that they are wrong, because everyone should ask themselves a few more questions,” says Meloni.

‘But are we sure,’ the Prime Minister asks, ‘that he was of sound mind at that moment? Are we sure there is a way to measure, by the clock or by the law, when a threat has ceased or not, at least for a man like him, who has found himself on the brink of death – his own and that of his family – on no fewer than two occasions?’ In this context, she adds, ‘it is a mistake to believe that one can draw a clear distinction’ between the moment when one was in danger and the exact moment when the danger ceased.

‘If you’re attacked,’ Meloni points out, ‘your brain and body go into “fight” mode; there’s a wealth of literature on the subject that explains how adrenaline alters all your senses, your body and your perception. It happens even to professionals whose job involves security, let alone an ordinary member of the public.”

On the principle of proportionality, ‘you cannot sentence paedophiles to eight years or give less than 10 years for gang rape cases and then condemn this jeweller to die in prison; there is a problem with the proportionality of sentences,’ he adds.

The League tables a bill extending the limits of self-defence

Meanwhile, the Lega’s campaign in support of Roggero continues. In addition to the petition calling on the Head of State to grant a pardon – which ‘has now garnered over 120,000 signatures’ – there is also a push to amend the law on self-defence, supplementing the provisions of Article 52 of the Criminal Code. Salvini’s party has, in fact, tabled a bill providing for the non-punishment of ‘any reaction’ in the immediate aftermath of an armed attack in the home or in a shop, ‘regardless of the proportionality of the means used, the persistence of the danger and the strictly defensive nature of the conduct’.

A bill, first tabled by Senator Claudio Borghi, which would effectively exonerate those – such as the Piedmontese jeweller – who acted outside their shop, in circumstances not deemed compatible with the current law on self-defence. Specifically, a new paragraph is added to Article 52 of the Criminal Code (‘a person who commits an act out of the necessity to defend their own or another’s rights against the present danger of an unjust offence shall not be punishable, provided that the defensive reaction is proportionate to the offence’). ‘In the event of an armed attack within one’s own home or within one’s own commercial, professional or business premises, any reaction carried out in the immediate aftermath of the incident by the person subjected to the attack is not punishable, regardless of the proportionality of the means used, the persistence of the danger and the strictly defensive nature of the conduct’, the text states.

Salvini to Roggero: put your experiences into a book

Deputy Prime Minister Salvini and Roggero embraced and spoke at length again today, during the Lega leader’s second visit. Salvini reaffirmed his support for Roggero and his willingness to visit him again in the near future, and suggested that he write everything down to compile his experiences into a book. The League leader is also in talks with the two League MPs Giulia Bongiorno and Simonetta Matone to offer every possible support to ensure he spends as little time as possible in prison. The two had coffee and met with the prison chaplain.

Bignami (Fdi): I went to show my support for the jeweller

But Salvini was not the only politician to visit Roggero. ‘I wanted to convey my solidarity and that of Fratelli d’Italia to a man who, regardless of the legal proceedings, is going through a traumatic time in his life – a time which, however, must never be forgotten, is the consequence of that violent attack and robbery of which he and his family were victims’ said Galeazzo Bignami, leader of the Fratelli d’Italia group in the Chamber of Deputies. He emphasised: “As the centre-right, we have launched a petition signed by our MPs to ask Minister Nordio to initiate all necessary procedures so that the President of the Republic may consider granting a pardon. We have decided to do this not in opposition to the sentence, but because we believe that, given Roggero’s age, a prison term of 14 years and 9 months would effectively amount to a life sentence.”

Conte: the right is exploiting the Roggero case

“The right is exploiting the jeweller’s case, where self-defence has nothing to do with it. In reality, they’re churning out one security decree after another to cover up the government’s failure on security,” said M5S leader Giuseppe Conte, in Palermo to take part in the commemorations marking the 34th anniversary of the Via D’Amelio massacre. “The state must shoulder its responsibilities,” he added. “This government cannot, in response to the need for security, turn Italia into the Wild West and tell people to ‘take the law into their own hands’.”