MILAN – Alfredo Cospito, an anarchist who was facing a life sentence for terrorist charges, has ended his six-month hunger strike which he started in protest against the judge’s decision to place him in a maximum security prison, Il Fatto Quotidiano reported Wednesday. 

 The decision to end the strike was made by Cospito himself by means of a pre-printed form available to inmates, in which he wrote, “I declare that I am interrupting my hunger strike,” therefore notifying the heads of the Department of Prison Administration and the Milan Court of Supervision. 

 In the past few days, it had emerged that Cospito, who had been transferred to the prison ward of the San Paolo hospital due to his weakening condition, had resumed taking some foodstuffs, in particular sachets of parmesan cheese, as well as supplements. 

 In addition, he had already eaten pastina with broth and had also asked doctors to allow him to ingest more elaborate food, which, however, given his long fast, he cannot digest at this time. 

 The resumption of eating, which must be gradual, is being monitored by doctors and for now, Cospito remains under observation at San Paolo to rule out the development of serious cardiac and neurological problems due to lack of nutrition.

 When his physical condition improves, he will be transferred back to prison. 

 On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court ruled that it is unconstitutional not to recognise mitigating circumstances for the crime of political massacre with aggravated recidivism for which Cospito is on trial. 

 “In continuity with its numerous and compliant precedents on the censured provision, the Court found this rule to be constitutionally illegitimate in the part in which it prohibits the judge from considering any extenuating circumstances as prevailing over the aggravating circumstance of recidivism in which the crime is punished with life imprisonment.”

 With this pronouncement, Cospito, who has already been definitively condemned for kneecapping an Ansaldo Nucleare employee and is awaiting trial for the attack on the Carabinieri School in Fossano, for which he is accused of the crime of political massacre, may no longer risk life imprisonment but a sentence of between 20 and 24 years.

cw