One hundred and three. There are many days that Alfredo Cospito spent on hunger strike in the Bancali prison of Sassari, imprisoned under the 41bis regime because the accusation of the crime of which he is accused (the 2006 attack without victims on the carabinieri school of Fossano) – discovered while he was already in prison for a ten-year sentence for taking the executive legs of Ansaldo Nucleare, Roberto Adinolfi – has been transformed into a “massacre against the security of the State”. And precisely because of his health conditions which have now become worrying, it was decided to transfer him to the Milan Opera prison, where, unlike Sassari, there is a clinical center.
One doctor visit a week
The last visit from the defense attorney’s trusted doctor Flavio Rossi Albertiniat the cardiologist Angelica Milliadates back to January 26th. It is the Dap, the Prison Administration Department, that authorizes weekly visits to the prison. The next one would have been set for February 2nd. It will now be rescheduled for the inmate’s transfer. Inside the Bancali there was no clinical center, but only a doctor to monitor the health conditions of the inmates on a daily basis and who, as far as Cospito is concerned, was in constant contact with Dr. Milia.
Weight loss: – 45 kilos
On October 20, before starting his hunger strike, Cospito weighed 118 kilos. Now the scale measures 73. Forty-five kilos less. For a big man 194 centimeters tall, like the 55-year-old anarchist from breaking latest news. The body mass index, which previously was over thirty, “as an obese person”, has now dropped to 20, “and tends towards underweight”, “we risk unsolvable problems for the organs”, explains Milia.
“When you lose more than 50 percent of the initial body weight, irreversible issues intervene. Going forward with fasting, the muscles are affected first, then the internal organs and finally the respiratory muscles and the heart – explains the doctor -. Consumed the body mass index, the body seeks energy even in the little fat it finds in the nerve sheath of the nerves”.
Water, honey and mineral salts
In these past three months Cospito has refused all prison food. He only stayed alive by drinking a little water, taking sugar from a few teaspoons of honey and taking vitamin and mineral salt supplements which at a certain point he wanted to stop and which only Dr. Milia convinced him to resume.
The decrease in potassium and the risk of arrhythmia
The cardiologist explains, “Cospito’s body is now suffering from a dangerous drop in potassium. He has very low values. He risks arrhythmia and cardiac fibrillation which could be fatal”. For this reason, a new therapy to replenish the salts was agreed between Milia and the Bancali doctors.
The thermoregulation in haywire
After such a prolonged period of fasting, even body thermoregulation no longer works as it should. “You wear three pairs of pants and four or five shirts,” Dr. Milia said. One night last week, in an effort to warm up, she had asked for a shower, but had fallen and broke his nose.
Muscle weakness
The muscles have in fact lost tone and strength, an extreme weakness due to the syndrome of lack of nutrition, which leads to poorly maintaining an upright position. “Cospito has been moving more and more in a wheelchair lately,” said the cardiologist, who also advised against time outdoors. However, the difficulties in mobility have also had psychological repercussions on the anarchist’s condition: “Moving around in a wheelchair puts him particularly down”, explained the doctor. But the nervous system is also affected by fasting. Again Milia: “Cospito is still clear-headed, he speaks well, but reports that he has short-term amnesia”.
The hunger strike to the bitter end
But the anarchist, who is carrying out his extreme battle with a challenge on his own body risking his life for it, has no intention of interrupting his form of protest. “I will refuse the Tso, they will have to tie me to the bed,” he told his lawyer.
However, Dr. Milia asks: “If he goes into ventricular fibrillation with cardiac arrest, he is revived, but then? The body is seriously affected and recovery would be difficult because he doesn’t even want forced feeding. There is no other way than to remove him from 41-bis”.
Times on 41 bis
The deadline for the reply of Justice Minister Carlo Nordio to the request for revocation of the 41 bis presented by the anarchist’s defense expires on 12 February. The hard prison had been ordered by the former minister Cartabia on May 4, 2022 on the basis of alleged connections between “two associations in close connection with Cospito”. In the event of no response from via Arenula within the deadlines, the appeal will be considered rejected.
In addition to the request for revocation on which the Minister of Justice is called to express his opinion, the defender also presented an appeal to the Supreme Court, with a hearing scheduled for 7 March, against the order of the Surveillance court of Rome, competent for the 41 bis.
Information in the Council of Ministers
This afternoon, at 18.30, a meeting of the Council of Ministers will be held, which will provide information from the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Interior and Justice on the Cospito case.