"Learning that Renato Vallanzasca, due to his serious health conditions, has obtained from the Surveillance Court of Milan, a deferral of sentence in a Residential Health Care Facility in Veneto, is good news. It expresses the sense of humanity and justice on the part of the Magistrates who have taken note of his health conditions. A 74-year-old man, with cognitive decline, regardless of his important past, which has seen him sentenced to 4 life sentences, is right that he can continue to serve his sentence in an alternative structure to a Penitentiary Institute. However, the fact that Graziano Mesina, 82, continues to remain confined in Opera, far from Sardinia since 2022, raises doubts".

Maria Grazia Caligaris, president of the association “Socialismo Diritti Riforme ODV” , supports this, observing that «the former red primrose of Sardinian banditry, sentenced to 24 years in prison, is living his detention experience in precarious health conditions , not even being able to have regular conversations with his family».

"Mesina appears to have been subjected to a series of neurological and psychiatric tests - Caligaris recalls - at the end of last April, in the SAI (Intensified Assistance Service). A particularly detailed investigation, by order of the Supervisory Magistrates, which concerned cognitive abilities and the possibility of carrying out treatment activities in the Milanese prison. Although the results of the detailed assessment are not known, it can be assumed that a person over eighty, who has not had conversations with his family for over 2 years, can hardly be in the ideal conditions to actively participate in his personal social rehabilitation and in the cultural activities of the educational area ".

«It is also surprising – the representative of SDR ODV points out – that in the presence of a SAI in the Cagliari Uta District Prison, the Department of Penitentiary Administration chose to transfer him to the homologous detention facility in the “Opera” Institute in Milan, distancing him from the few relatives he has left and acting almost as if it wanted to add a sentence to the one established in the sentence by the Judges who sentenced him to detention». «Mesina's advanced age, his physical and mental conditions and the respect for the principle of territoriality of the sentence seem to suggest to those in power – concludes Caligaris – a gesture of humanity by allowing him to return to Sardinia and possibly assigning him house arrest in his country, in an environment that can welcome him back . Otherwise one could have the impression that there are children and stepchildren».

(Online Union)

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