There are two sentences behind the story of Elia Del Grande , the man who ran away from the Castelfranco Emilia workhouse and who is being sought right now also in Sardinia .
Del Grande, 50, from Lombardy, has several acquaintances in Gallura, where he lived for some time, in addition to his partner from Olbia. They also bring to Sardinia the events that go some way to explaining his escape from the workhouse.
In 2023, Elia Del Grande appealed to the Sassari Surveillance Court (he was under house arrest at his home in Telti), denouncing a 25-year journey through Italian prisons, marked by long periods spent in "degrading and inhumane" conditions. These were the same conditions he himself described in a letter to a Varese newspaper from an undisclosed location after his escape.
The petition is being studied and argued by attorney Nicoletta Mani (specializing in penitentiary law). The appeal concerns the methods of serving the sentence, which, according to the attorney, violate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Mani describes Del Grande's life in several prisons subsequently closed due to the degrading conditions imposed on inmates. Among the prisons cited , San Sebastiano stands out. In 2004, the Sassari penitentiary was deemed the worst prison in Italy by the Chamber of Deputies' Justice Committee .
The judges upheld the appeal and applied a sentence reduction, as compensation for the prisoner's treatment . But Del Grande was not immediately freed, because the conviction for the Cadrezzate incident ( 1998, the man killed his father, mother, and brother ) also imposed a three-year security measure, later converted to probation. And there was also another ruling: the man obtained further compensation, this time a sum of money, for violations of the ECHR .
Upon completion of this process, Del Grande was assigned to the Castelfranco Emilia Workhouse. The man, partly due to disputes with a neighbor in Gallura, which resulted in a complaint and a trial in Tempio, returned to the socially dangerous category and lost his previous benefits. This was the context in which the decision to remove him from the Workhouse was made.
Attorney Nicoletta Mani, representing him alongside criminal lawyer Antonello Desini, released only a brief statement: "This person is not an escapee." Del Grande may be in Sardinia with his partner, but so far the Carabinieri have found no trace of the couple.
