Rome Prosecutors Seek to Shelve Case Against Justice Undersecretary Delmastro

Rome: The Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office has moved to dismiss the case against Justice Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro, who faced allegations of disclosing classified information related to jailed anarchist Alfredo Cospito.

According to Ansa News Agency, Delmastro, a member of Premier Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, was accused of leaking potentially embarrassing information about the Cospito case to his flatmate and fellow FdI member Giovanni Donzelli. Donzelli, a member of the Copasir parliamentary committee overseeing Italy’s intelligence services, reportedly revealed the information in parliament.

Initially, prosecutors sought to dismiss the case against Delmastro during the preliminary hearings, but a judge ordered them to proceed with an indictment request. In January 2023, Donzelli addressed parliament, stating that Cospito, who was on a hunger strike protesting the 41 bis jail regime, had communicated with mafia bosses about abolishing the treatment, which is typically reserved for mafiosi.

Donzelli also disclosed that four lawmakers from the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) visited Cospito, serving a 30-year sentence for the Fossano bombing and the kneecapping of a nuclear company executive in 2012. During the parliamentary debate, Donzelli questioned whether the PD sided with the State or with mafia and terrorists, causing outrage within the opposition.

The controversy escalated when Delmastro claimed that the PD lawmakers acquiesced to Cospito’s demands to meet other 41 bis detainees, including two mafia bosses, as a prerequisite for their meeting with him.