Eighteen years after the robbery in his jewelry shop in Nicolosi, which ended with two deaths, Guido Gianni's sentence is shortened. It is one of the three pardons signed by Sergio Mattarella, who cancels three years and two months of the 12 year and four month sentence for double murder and attempted murder. A story accompanied over the years by appeals, a petition from his wife and the support of the League. And which returns to the fore after weeks in which another story with similar traits, that of Mario Roggero, inflamed the political debate, punctuated by the mobilization for Matteo Salvini's clemency.
Originally from Turin but living in Catania, in 2008 Gianni found himself dealing with a robbery for the second time, after having foiled another nine years earlier by shooting in the air. The bandits attacked his wife and threatened her with a weapon, which later turned out to be blanks. The goldsmith shot: two 21-year-old robbers died and a third was injured. "I defended my wife and my family, I didn't want to kill," he explained to investigators. For the judges, however, the fatal shots were fired when the bandits were now on the run: no legitimate defense and in 2022 the prison doors opened for Gianni. However, the case had already gone beyond the courtroom, with a petition on Change.org launched by his wife Maria Angela Distefano, also supported by the Northern League MEP Susanna Ceccardi. A support that Salvini reiterated when meeting the goldsmith at Ucciardone.
The pardon of Gianni brings with it - at least in the news - the echo of the Roggero case. Even for the Grinzane jeweler Cavour - sentenced to 14 years and nine months for killing two robbers and wounding a third - the Northern League leader is asking for clemency. The similarities, however, stop here: the facts, judicial processes and personal situations on which each provision is evaluated are different. On the relationship between safety and respect for the rules, Mattarella had already drawn the line in July, at the Ventaglio ceremony.
"Individual behaviors must respect common rules, those of the law", the head of state underlined, warning that thinking instead of adapting the rules to individual behaviors, "on a case by case basis", does not strengthen security but leads to the "abdication of the state".
In Gianni's case, the President of the Republic "took into account the favorable opinion of the supervisory magistrate" and the five years and three months already served. The pardon is partial: it does not cancel the conviction, but reduces the sentence still to be served, bringing it under four years and thus allowing the probationary assignment to social services to be evaluated. "Great news", exults Salvini, claiming that "those who are attacked in their business, see their wife threatened and react to defend themselves and their loved ones cannot be treated like criminals". "The defense is always legitimate", reiterates the leader of the Northern League. A line also supported by the group leader of Forza Italia in the European Parliament, Fulvio Martusciello, who applauds a choice of "balance and humanity".
The other two graces tell completely different stories. For a man born in 1972, sentenced to seven years for crimes also related to drugs, Mattarella canceled the remaining five years, five months and ten days due to very serious and irreversible health conditions. The latest provision instead concerns a forty-five year old sentenced to ten years for drug crimes: the pardon extinguishes one year and nine months, in light of the reintegration process and the health conditions of his minor daughter. For him too, the residual allows the probationary custody to be evaluated.
