18 December 2019 :
The VIII Congress of Hands Off Cain will be held in the Opera prison in Milan on 20 and 21 December.
It will take place in the prison theatre, that is now dedicated to Marco Pannella, who in 2015, participating in his last Congress, that of the association of which he was the President, animated and gave impetus to the battle for the abolition of “ergastolo ostativo” (the Italian version of life without parole) that this year has borne fruit with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and then with the Constitutional Court.
"Successes that we have been able to grasp - explain the leaders of the association, Sergio D'Elia (Secretary), Rita Bernardini, (President) and Elisabetta Zamparutti (Treasurer) - because the motto so dear to Marco Pannella, Spes contra Spem, has convinced people, and also convinced Opera inmates. The inmates who were the protagonists of the documentary film by Ambrogio Crespi "Spes contra Spem - Liberi dentro" which, against all hope, were themselves hope, determining with their change the orientation of the judges of the highest national and supranational jurisdictions."
Two sessions of debate: the first dedicated to the theme "The Right to Hope: the life sentence in the light of the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court"; the second entitled "Not a better criminal law, but something better than criminal law".
On the morning of December 20, after the greetings of the Director of Opera Silvio Di Gregorio and of Pietro Buffa, Director of the Prison Administration of Lombardy, the introductory ones by Giovanna Di Rosa, President of the Surveillance Court of Milan, and Mauro Palma, National Guarantor for the rights of persons detained or deprived of liberty, and of Vinicio Nardo, President of the Milan Bar Association.
After the introductory reports of the governing bodies, there will be the scheduled speeches by Maurizio Turco, Secretary of the Radical Party and Stefano Castellino, Mayor of Palma di Montechiaro, city of origin of some convicts held in Opera with testimonies of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment.
In the debate session on Friday 20 December on the sentences against the life sentence, the following will intervene, among others: the Lawyer Antonella Mascia, who sponsored the Viola vs Italia case at the ECHR; the emeritus President of the Constitutional Court Valerio Onida; professors Pasquale Bronzo, Davide Galliani and Andrea Pugiotto; the President of the Forensic National Council Andrea Mascherin and Riccardo De Vito, Sassari Magistrate of Surveillance and President of Magistratura Democratica (one of the judges' unions).
The discussion session on Saturday 21 December will include Prof. Luciano Eusebi, Gherardo Colombo, Luigi Crespi and the writer Gioacchino Criaco.
The press that wants to be accredited to the Congress must send an email to segrtrattamentale.cr.opera@giustizia.it indicating the name and surname of the participants and any equipment to be brought into prison.
