Update about the health condition of Alfredo Cospito on the 99th day of hunger strike (Italy, January 26, 2023)

The attempted annihilation against Alfredo was ratified by the State in July and December last year, first (by the Court of Cassation) with the reclassification as ‘political massacre’ of a charge in the Scripta Manent trial, then (by the Court of Surveillance in Rome) with an order confirming his detention in 41 bis, the most afflictive detention regime in Italian prisons, to which Alfredo was transferred on May 5th.

In the face of this attempt at annihilation, it is of the utmost importance that the ideas, deeds, and contribution of the comrade are not forgotten, condemned to oblivion as desired by the repressive apparatuses with the Scripta Manent trial, Sibilla repressive operation, and the transfer to the 41 bis prison regime. To the isolation and censorship of the State and its prisons we oppose, today as yesterday, the tenacity and consistency of our ideas and practices.

“Allow me to say, with a modicum of pride, that my life (like the life of every anarchist worthy of the name) is characterised by the attempt to make theory and action coincide. To the servants of Power I say only one thing: you can keep me in jail for the rest of my life but resign yourself, you will not succeed in taking away my coherence and self-respect, let alone the pleasure and desire to fight you“.
(Alfredo Cospito, ‘About Sibilla Operation’, 2021)

An update on the current health condition: the comrade collapsed, the torturers took him to hospital and then returned him to 41 bis

Serious news is arriving from Bancali prison, where Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike for 99 days. Our comrade now moves around in a wheelchair, he has worrying microchemical values, he has serious thermoregulation problems, that is, he is getting colder and colder, he covers himself with many jumpers and several pairs of trousers.

Perhaps in order to warm himself up, he decided to take a shower last night, around 11:30 p.m.. There Alfredo allegedly collapsed, fell and broke his nose in a compound manner. In addition, due to low platelets, he allegedly started to lose a lot of blood from the wound. For these reasons he was rushed to the hospital in Sassari. After initial treatment, the murderers of the prison police took him back to prison.

A few hours earlier, yesterday [January 25th], came the Minister of Justice rejection of Alfredo’s transfer to a prison with a hospital ward: according to Nordio [Carlo Nordio is the Minister of Justice], Cospito is ‘in excellent health’…

The comrade’s health condition on the 99th day of hunger strike

On January 26th, the 99th day of the hunger strike against 41 bis and life imprisonment without possibility of parole, the antagonist radio station Radio Onda d’Urto broadcast a fifth speech by the doctor who is regularly visiting comrade Alfredo Cospito. As with the updates on the 71st (December 29th), 78th (January 5th) and 85th (January 12th) day of the hunger strike, we report a transcript of the broadcast:

“So […], I found him quite bad; quite bad because his thermoregulation is practically non-functional, that is, he can no longer thermoregulate: he’s in four shirts and three pairs of trousers, he’s always cold. As if that wasn’t enough, when last night to warm himself up he had the idea of taking a shower around 11.30 p.m., he fell ruinously to the floor because he had hypotension, so he landed on the shower tray with his face and found a decomposed fracture of the base of his nose, so he was taken to the emergency room where they reduced the fracture, which was later tamponaded in the otorhinic department, and sent back to prison. Now he has no pain, all in all the bleeding has reduced, but what is important is that the white series of the haemochrome has also been reduced, i.e. the lymphocytes, the leucocytes, that is, all those corpuscles that serve to fight infections. And the platelets have also been reduced, which is probably why he has lost more blood than he should have lost; today he still had his shirt all bloody because he went to bed, he slept very little, he’s starting to get insomnia, and the electrolyte drop continues, so we’re in a bit of a downhill situation. […] The discourse is that [the situation] can change from one moment to the next, it depends on how much his organism is still able to affect the proteins as little as possible and therefore to save them, because what concerns the blood series, the albumin […], also depends on this, so the moment he exceeds 50 per cent of the protein catabolism we are very, very, very much at risk. […] In my opinion, yes [the situation can become life-threatening at any moment]. […] Since the last time he lost 2.00 kg, all in all not very much, also because last week he had lost more because he kept on walking, so since there was no possibility to have a food intake, therefore an energetic production, the organism drew from the muscles, so the previous week he had had a muscular decrease, a very important muscular catabolism […]”.

The injunction issued by the Department of Penitentiary Administration to the trusted doctor and the health condition of the comrade on the 92nd day of hunger strike

On January 23rd, the comrade’s lawyer, receiving from the management of the Bancali prison the authorisation for the visit of the trustworthy doctor for the following January 26th, received jointly an injunction, addressed to the doctor herself, who is admonished not to give any more interviews to the radio station Radio Onda d’Urto “in order not to frustrate the purposes of the regime under the former article 41 bis of the penitentiary order. Further statements made in this sense, could lead […] to consider the revocation of the authorisation to access the Institute“. A threat, even more serious as it occurs in the days when the comrade’s condition is seriously worsening, which once again expresses all the will of isolation that the State officials intend to impose on the comrade and his condition.

In order to provide a picture as complete as possible of the serious worsening of the physical condition that has occurred in the last week, we also publish a transcript of the doctor’s fourth speech on Radio Onda d’Urto (dating from January 19th, 92nd day of hunger strike):

“[…] Despite the further weight loss – because today he weighed 87 kg, we are on the 90th day of the hunger strike, he has lost about 40 kg, starting from 115 kg – all in all his health condition is stable. Let’s say that we’ve reached the limit of what can be a precipitation of the precarious condition in which he now lives, because all his glucose reserves are practically exhausted, he no longer has any fat, and he’s heading towards muscle catabolism, as his muscles are greatly reduced in volume. He is, however, still conscious, he always uses the usual honey when he has periods of obnubilation, but all in all I can’t say that I found him bad today, he’s fairly well. We find ourselves in that situation where, a month ago, I could say that there was still a good margin for the situation not to deteriorate, whereas now this great margin is no longer there. […] So, no, he’s not sick, I wanted to say that what could have been the margin where the situation still had some time, quite a bit of time to be able to precipitate, now [instead] it can precipitate at any moment, that’s all [… ], we’re on a narrow path where there can be a trifle, even an emotional stress… So, he was telling me, for example, if it was good for him to walk during the hour of free time, because he was having a little fun with the other three people with whom he shared the hour of free time. Now, it is clear that a walk, to another ‘patient’, could be good, a good thing, because it is always good to move; in Alfredo’s case a further energy consumption, as there is no possibility of reintroducing these lost energies, is not. In fact, I told him: ‘walk as little as possible, stay in the free time break, this yes, but as physical activity at this time it is not indicated that you do it’ […]”.

We also report previous updates on the condition and health of the comrade:

• Update on anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito on indefinite hunger strike (Italy, December 19, 2022)
• Update about the health condition of Alfredo Cospito on the 71st day of hunger strike (Italy, December 29, 2022)
• Update about the health condition of Alfredo Cospito on the 78th day of hunger strike (Italy, January 5, 2023)
• Update about the health condition of Alfredo Cospito on the 85th day of hunger strike (Italy, January 12, 2023)

[Published in english at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/01/27/update-about-the-health-condition-of-alfredo-cospito-on-the-99th-day-of-hunger-strike-italy-january-26-2023/ | Recording of the January 26th broadcast of Radio Onda d’Urto published at https://www.radiondadurto.org/2023/01/26/caso-cospito-la-dottoressa-milia-da-un-momento-allaltro-puo-essere-in-pericolo-di-vita/ | Recording of the January 19th broadcast of Radio Onda d’Urto published at https://www.radiondadurto.org/2023/01/19/caso-cospito-3-mesi-di-sciopero-della-fame-contro-il-41bis-intervista-alla-dottoressa-milia-che-lo-segue-in-carcere/]

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(IT) Aggiornamento sulle condizioni di salute di Alfredo Cospito al 99esimo giorno di sciopero della fame ad oltranza (26 gennaio 2023)
(EN) Update about the health condition of Alfredo Cospito on the 99th day of hunger strike (Italy, January 26, 2023)

source: https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/01/27/update-about-the-health-con...