Graziano Mesina Dies Day After Release with Terminal Cancer

Milan: Graziano Mesina, the former ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ of Sardinian kidnapping banditry, passed away in a Milan hospital over the weekend, just a day after being released from prison due to terminal cancer. Mesina, aged 83, died at San Paolo Hospital in Milan after serving two years in Opera Prison as part of a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking.

According to Ansa News Agency, Mesina was arrested 12 years ago as the alleged leader of a drug trafficking gang. In 2018, he was sentenced to 30 years in an appeals trial in Cagliari, a verdict that was upheld by the Cassation Court in 2020. Following his arrest, the State pardon, granted by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2004, was revoked in 2016.

Mesina, who was affectionately known as Grazianeddu, had been pardoned after spending nearly 50 years in and out of prison. However, he returned to drug trafficking and attempted kidnapping. Sardinia’s most notorious postwar bandit, Mesina was considered a hero by many champagne Socialists and anti-government militants during the 1960s and 1970s for his kidnappings, prison escapes, and his lifestyle while on the run.

The iconic bandit was acquitted in October 2013 of ordering the murder of Santino Gungui near Nuoro on Christmas night in 1974. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, arguing that Mesina, who was imprisoned at the time, had ordered the murder of the 37-year-old Gungui for not surrendering the proceeds from arms and drug trafficking.