He served his sentence in prison and then obtained rehabilitation from the Surveillance Court of Sassari. But for Federico Caputo , a 63-year-old ex-convict , the electoral card remained a desire , seeing himself « prohibited from the right to vote . This appears to be an act of arrogance and discrimination on the part of the institutions, especially since the notification of the rehabilitation by the Police Headquarters dates back to October 2022. " This was reported by Maria Grazia Caligaris of the Socialismo Diritti Riforme Odv association, describing what happened to the man.
«The request for the issue of the electoral card - reported Caputo - was presented in October 2023, following the criminal rehabilitation obtained on 13 October 2022 and notified by the Sassari police headquarters on the following 22 October. The refusal of the electoral office , which I turned to well in advance , left me dumbfounded . I thought it was just a temporal mix-up. I therefore reiterated the request close to the regional elections in Sardinia but the office manager was adamant having not received any information and despite the fact that I had shown the certificate from the police headquarters . I therefore decided to turn to the prefecture who, despite acknowledging the seriousness of the situation, was unable to intervene to resolve the lack of communication and therefore I had to give up exercising the right/duty to vote".
«For me the event itself - he continues - has a meaning that goes beyond the electoral circumstance. After the years in which I committed the crimes, which I fully paid for with the loss of freedom, I pursued rehabilitation with perseverance and determination. The electoral card represented for me concrete social reintegration. I was sorry to give it up ."
For Caligaris, the institutions' failures are the result of the offices' inability to dialogue, "without considering that failure to respect citizens' rights weighs heavily on everyone's social life, fueling mistrust".
