(see related stories) Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told the Lower House on Wednesday that there is no chance of lifting the harsh mafia 41 bis prison regime highlighted by the case of Alfredo Cospito, an anarchist leader who has been on hunger strike for over 100 days in protest at the regime.
Nordio said the case of Cospito was particularly "complex".
Nordio said Cospito was under the 41 bis, which is usually reserved for mafia bosses, because "he has shown that he is perfectly capable of connecting to the outside world, even under detention".
He said it would not be right for him to take a stance on whether he should continue under this jail regime without "first having acquired the opinions of the competent judicial authorities".
Anarchist groups have embarked on a wave of violent protests and acts of vandalism against public institutions in relation to Cospito's case.
The inmate's lawyer said Wednesday that he was on hunger strike to protest against the 41 bis itself, also for jailed mafiosi, and not just to try to get himself out of it.
But Nordio said there was "no chance" of the 41 bis being changed.
He also said the authorities would not be swayed by Cospito's state of health following the hunger strike in making a decision on his jail regime.
He said that, if they did, it would "open the floodgates to a series of forms of pressure by inmates in the same situation".
The 41 bis mandates almost total isolation from the outside world with only walking breaks once a week and no books or communication allowed apart from a pen and paper for internal use only.
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