Quirinale, Mattarella signs 3 graces: 88-year-old Antonio Russo is also there

The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella has signed (in accordance with the provisions of Article 87, paragraph 11 of the Constitution) three decrees of clemency, following the Minister of Justice's preliminary investigation, which ended with a favourable outcome. These are three measures of individual clemency concerning Antonio Russo, Giuseppe Porcelli and Aly Soliman.The decision comes just a few days after the controversy raised by the news of the pardon granted by Mattarella to Nicole Minetti, dental hygienist and former Lombardy councilwoman for the PDL.

The best known case is that of Antonio Russo: born in 1938, he was definitively sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for voluntary manslaughter, committed in 2018. The case was controversial: tragic epilogue to an episode that occurred in the context of continuous domestic violence suffered by his stepson. Gianni Alemanno, who was detained with the 88-year-old in the same wing of Rebibbia, had also recently intervened in his case. The case was raised by the former mayor of Rome and Fabio Falbo who denounced his advanced age and precarious physical condition. In their letter to the Quirinale, Alemanno and Falbo described the affair as 'a great shame', describing Russo as an elderly, ill and not socially dangerous prisoner, with a family willing to take him into home detention.

In granting the partial pardon - which extinguished two years and six months of the prison sentence still to be served - the Head of State took into account the favourable opinion of the Minister of Justice, the age and health of the person concerned and the particular family context in which the criminal episode took place, as a result of an assault suffered by the convicted person.

The second person pardoned by Mattarella is Giuseppe Porcelli: born in 1975, he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for the crime of bankruptcy. In granting the pardon, which extinguished the entire prison sentence, the Head of State took into account the favourable opinion, formulated by the Attorney General, the change in the convicted man's life, who had moved with his family abroad several years ago, where he had undertaken a business activity, and the reparatory conduct carried out by the convicted man in favour of the bankruptcy creditors, by making available the sum for which he had been convicted.

Aly Soliman, born in 1960, a trade unionist with Ugl, had been sentenced to six years imprisonment for extortion. In granting the pardon for the remaining sentence to be served, two years and five months, the President of the Republic took into account the behaviour of the convicted person, first in prison and then in the probation measure, and the fact that a considerable part of the sentence had been served.