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13 June 2019The provisions that in Italy regulate the sentence of life imprisonment, more commonly known as "fine sentence ever", violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of degrading and inhuman treatment) and the general respect for human dignity, at the heart of the Convention itself. This was established by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in the sentence on the Marcello Viola case, sentenced to life imprisonment in the late 1990s for the crimes of mafia association, murder and kidnapping and which has been rejected requests for leaving prison , despite the ascertained good conduct and a positive change in his personality.

The judges, who have condemned Italy for the payment of 6 thousand euros to Viola for legal costs, have established that "it is inadmissible to deprive a person of his freedoms, without tending to his rehabilitation and to offer him the possibility of regaining freedom in the future ".

In fact, the prison sentence provides, among other things, that the condemned person cannot obtain, like the other prisoners, any discount on sentences and exit permits, unless he cooperates with justice. This choice, however - the Strasbourg Court notes - is not "free", because some convicts are afraid that this "endangers their lives and that of their families"; moreover, collaborating does not automatically imply that the condemned person "is no longer faithful to criminal values ​​or has cut ties with mafia-type organizations". The Strasbourg decision does not entail the release of Viola, whose judges do not deny the seriousness of the crimes committed.

"A historical pronouncement". Thus nobody touches Cain, the association for years engaged with the Radical Party for the abolition of the life sentence, defines the sentence of the European Court for Human Rights (Cedu) on the case of Marcello Viola vs Italy.

"The Court has in fact affirmed that the life sentence is contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention for Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment - emphasizes Hands Off Cain - According to the Court, in fact, the life sentence is a form of perpetual incompressible punishment. With this sentence the ECHR empties article 4 bis of the penitentiary system, which provides for an automatic barrier to penitentiary benefits, to alternative measures to prison and to conditional release in the absence of collaboration with justice ".

"The ECHR makes collaboration with justice fall under article 58 ter op, as the sole criterion for assessing the prisoner's repentance - adds Nessuno tocchi Caino - The Court also considers this to be a structural problem of the Italian legal system and asks that the relevant legislation ".

For Sergio d'Elia, secretary of Hands Off Cain: '' The success at the Edu Court is the prelude to what must happen to the Italian Constitutional Court which on October 22 will discuss the life sentence from the Cannizzaro case, in which Nobody touches Cain was admitted as an intervening party ".

"Thought can only go to Marco Pannella, to his Spes contra Spem who animated us and nourished us over the years, and to the prisoners of the Opera protagonists of the docu-film of Ambrogio Crespi 'Spes contra Spem - Liberi dentro' that against every hope have been hope, thereby freeing not only oneself but also the minds of the judges of Strasbourg ", he concludes.