Meloni takes hard line on Cospito

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 3 - Premier Giorgia Meloni has taken a hard line on the case of Alfredo Cospito, a 55-year-old anarchist leader who has been on hunger strike for over 100 days over his harsh 41 bis prison regime, which is usually reserved for mafiosi.
    Cospito's lawyers say he has reached a "critical threshold" after losing over 45kg but is determined to see through his campaign to have the 41 bis lifted for all inmates, whatever the "irreparable consequences".
    Justice Minister Carlo Nordio has said there is no chance of the 41 bis regime being changed.
    Meloni said late Thursday that "just as the State does not negotiate with the mafia, it does not negotiate with terrorism either".
    Anarachists supporting Cospito have carried out several attacks in Italy and abroad, some of them bombings, without killing anyone at least so far.
    Meanwhile a row is continuing between Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and the centre-left oppisition Democratic Party (PD) after FdI Mp Giovanni Donzelli allegedly revealed secret information about a Neapolitan Camorra mafia boss allegedly supporting a PD delegation's visit to check on Cospito's condition in jail.
    The PD has accused Donzelli of breaking state secrecy norms and said he should quit.
    But Nordio said Thursday night that the document read out by Donzelli in parliament on the visit and the Camorra boss "was not a classified document".
    Meanwhile a hearing before the supreme Court of Cassation on a plea from Cospito's laywer to be released from 41 bis has been brought forward to February 24. (ANSA).