Three years and four months for Johnny the Gypsy . This is the sentence inflicted in the afternoon, in the assizes in Sassari, by judge Valentina Nuvoli against Giuseppe Mastini, accused for evasion .

The lifer did not return to Bancali prison from the award permit on 5 September 2020 and was found by the state police ten days later while he was hiding in a farmhouse in Zinziodda, in the Sassari area.

This morning the discussion between the parties in the abbreviated judgment and conditional on the presentation of a report of Mastini's interrogation produced in the days following his arrest.

In this document Johnny justified his escape with an alleged threat experienced in the Bacchiddu prison and caused by another prisoner who had denounced his behavior.

"If Mastini had returned to Bancali in those days - argued the defense attorney Silvio Toccafondi - today we would not be here to discuss the case". An episode therefore of "self-defense", according to the lawyer, who insisted on the fact that Johnny the Gypsy, from his last sentence up to September 3 years ago, "had been a model prisoner", underlining that "by now he has already served 40 years in prison".

Prosecutor Ilaria Achenza, while recognizing the extenuating circumstances, had asked for two years for the prisoner . But according to the judge, the penalty should have been more severe and now the defense attorney is waiting for the reasons to decide whether to appeal against the decision.

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