For the 2020 revolt in the Melfi prison 29 arrests
The State Police of Power carried out an application order for the precautionary custody in prison against 29 people, all seriously suspected of having taken an active part in the serious revolt of March 9, 2020 at the Melfi prison, in the broader context of the protests against the restrictive measures imposed by the Department of Penitentiary Administration for the containment of the epidemiological emergency from Covid-19 .
During the revolt, health personnel and various agents of the penitentiary police, on duty at the Melfitan institute, were kidnapped for about 9 hours. As part of the same procedure, the precautionary order had already been carried out in September last year against 11 other detainees who had not appealed to the Supreme Court and that the further execution took place following the rejections and declarations of inadmissibility, by the Supreme Court of Cassation, of the appeals proposed.
The investigations, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Potenza, through a careful and meticulous reconstruction of all the phases of the protest, made it possible to trace the identity of all the detainees of whom, without prejudice to the presumption of innocence, it is currently assumed the involvement in various capacities in the serious riot, during which health personnel and various agents of the penitentiary police, in service at the Melfitan institute, were kidnapped for about nine hours.
Thanks to the immediate intervention of the Public Security Authorities and to the device of the law enforcement agencies made to converge on the spot, as well as to the efforts made by the Melfi Penitentiary Police, it was possible to achieve the release of the hostages by bringing the troublemakers back to the detention rooms, following of a long negotiation during which the supporters of the riot had also provided for the drafting of a document of requests and claims. The presence on the spot of personnel specialized in anti-mafia investigations of the State Police, has allowed in synergy with the Penitentiary Police of the Melfi prison, to arrive in the immediacy of the facts and already during the night to the acquisition of a series of circumstantial elements which, as a result of the further investigative investigations, led the District Anti-Mafia Directorate to contest the crimes of kidnapping for the purpose of coercion and devastation, for which a request for indictment has already been formulated before the Judge of the hearing Preliminary Power.
The execution took place in the provinces of Potenza, Bari, Crotone, Reggio Calabria, Naples, Perugia, Livorno, L’Aquila, Oristano, Cuneo, Catanzaro, Agrigento, Palermo, Udine, Syracuse and Catania. The operation was conducted by the Potenza Mobile Squad, with the coordination of the Central Operational Service of the State Police and the support and collaboration of the Penitentiary Police Departments.