Roggero: the jeweller remains in custody; application for a stay of sentence deemed inadmissible

Mario Roggero remains in prison in Bollate. Following Wednesday morning’s hearing, the Milan Supervisory Court declared “inadmissible” the application for a stay of sentence submitted by lawyer Stefano Marcolini, representing the jeweller from Cuneo who was definitively sentenced to 14 years and 9 months for the double murder of two robbers and the attempted murder of a third. The decision by Judges Bortolato and D’Elia, assisted by the experts Bisconti and Morante, mirrors that taken by their colleagues at the Turin Supervisory Court on Monday, against which the 72-year-old’s defence team has already announced it will lodge an appeal with the Court of Cassation.

In the brief order served this morning, the Milanese magistrates responsible for overseeing the detention of prisoners note that “contrary to the arguments put forward by Roggero’s defence”, the application to defer the enforcement of the sentence in the event of a petition for a pardon being submitted to the President of the Republic, such as that put forward by the jeweller’s wife, Mariangela Sandrone, is “applicable” only when the “sentence has not yet commenced”. In this specific case, Roggero and his lawyer had “already correctly submitted” it to the Court of Turin, which rejected it “on the merits”. “It is entirely clear” that “this panel” cannot consider “admissible” a new application to suspend the sentence – which was, moreover, submitted after the time limits laid down by the relevant ‘case law’ – because it would turn the procedure into a ‘means of repeating’ the same appeal several times, thereby circumventing the ‘ordinary rules’ and ‘appeal procedures’. The Supervisory Court emphasises that Roggero, as he has already announced, may appeal against the Turin decision to the Court of Cassation.

It was during yesterday’s hearing that Roggero took a critical look at his behaviour: ‘Every life deserves respect, in keeping with the metaphor that we are all drops in an ocean. I should have behaved less impulsively and more thoughtfully’. This is the statement made by Mario Roggero – the jeweller definitively sentenced to 14 years and 9 months for killing two robbers and wounding a third following the raid on his shop in April 2021 - had made before the judges of the Milan Supervisory Court, who had convened this morning to discuss the request for a postponement submitted by the defence lawyers ahead of the petition for a pardon submitted to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.

The jeweller, who had requested to begin serving his sentence under house arrest whilst awaiting the Quirinale’s decision, was not seen entering the courtroom; however, his lawyer, the lawyer Stefano Marcolini , reported that he would be taken by prison police from Bollate prison to the court. The hearing had addressed the same issue that had already been rejected on Monday 14 September by the supervisory judges in Turin, the district in which the sentence was handed down. Roggero’s defence team asked the Court to rule on the merits of the application.

In response to the decision by the Turin judges Mario Roggero will lodge an appeal with the Court of Cassation on the grounds of lack of reasoning. The Turin Supervisory Court had described the deferral of the sentence linked to the application for a pardon as a ‘residual’ scenario, emphasising the need for particularly clear grounds to intervene in a matter that falls within the prerogative of the Head of State.