Since 20 October, the anarchist Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike against his detention in total isolation and torture and against imprisonment without parole. Other detained comrades (Anna Beniamino, Ivan Alocco, Juan Sorrocho and Toby Shone) as a sign of solidarity and to give strength to Alfredo’s struggle, have also started a hunger strike.
Alfredo has been in prison uninterruptedly for ten years, spent in High Security sections until his transfer to 41 bis. The 41 bis is a prison regime of annihilation, as it is designed to cause physical and mental damage through the technique of sensory deprivation; it is a political and social death sentence, aimed at cutting off all contact with the outside world.
Our comrade was transferred to these torture chambers because, despite his imprisonment, he never stopped contributing to the international anarchist debate with articles, editorial projects and proposals.
The re-examination of the 41 bis measure against Alfredo is set for 1 December. This hearing will be very important because it will have to pronounce on the legitimacy of the previous Justice Minister Marta Cartabia’s decision to apply the 41 bis prison regime against our comrade.
Alfredo was convicted, along with Anna Beniamino and other anarchists, in the mega trial Scripta Manent, a trial aimed at criminalising anarchist ideas and hostile practices against all forms of authority and domination. Specifically, Alfredo and Anna were accused of being responsible for the double explosive attack against the Scuola Allievi Carabinieri in Fossano, on 2 June 2006, claimed by Rivolta Anonima and Tremenda / Federazione Anarchica Informale. For this attack, on 6 July, the Court of Cassation reformulated the sentence to ‘political massacre’. Life imprisonment is the only penalty the Italian penal code provides for political massacre. After reclassifying the crime, the Cassation sent the case back to the Court of Appeal to redetermine the convictions. The hearing that will decide the extent of these sentences is set for 5 December in Turin.
The Italian state, which has always protected the fascist strategy of mass murder, now wants to convict two anarchists of massacre for an explosive attack that caused neither victims nor injuries.
This affair breaks into the increasingly dark repressive climate with which we all have to deal: that is why the struggle of Alfredo, Juan, Ivan, Anna and Toby is close to the heart of those who do not want to resign themselves to a world that is more and more an open-air jail.
We call for 30 November (the day before the re-examination of the 41 bis measure against Alfredo), a day of action in solidarity with Alfredo and the other comrades on hunger strike.
Let us make them feel our solidarity that breaks the isolation beyond all borders and all cages. Let us break the deafening silence in which they want to bury our comrade alive. Let us give voice to our comrades’ struggle with our actions.
Let us make the symbols of oppression and exploitation the targets of our actions. Targets are everywhere. Every action is necessary: whether it is spreading the ideas of anarchist hunger strikes or sabotaging and disrupting the normal functioning of the state and capital. Target the Italian, German or any other state and the symbols of domination to abolish the prison system!
From: de.indymedia.org