Graziano Mesina will get his suspended pension back from July 2020, after he had fled, avoiding the execution of the 30-year sentence pronounced by the Supreme Court. From 1 February, the former fugitive from Orgosolo, now detained in a single cell in the high-security arm of the Badu and Carros prison, will be able to collect his pension again. This was decided by the INPS of Nuoro, which as a precaution accepted the request presented immediately after the arrest by the lawyers of the Orgolese, Beatrice Goddi and Maria Luisa Vernier.
Legal battle
At first, the application to INPS for the reinstatement of the suspended old-age pension, including the arrears and unpaid monthly payments, presented by the lawyers of the former Primula Rossa, had been rejected. For the admission of the reinstatement application, the social security institution also requested an opinion from the Public Prosecutor of Cagliari, which had issued the revocation decree. Only with a second application did the social allowance be readmitted by INPS, but as a precaution. The institute, however, rejected the request for arrears: the 17 monthly payments - from July 2020 to December 2021 - during the months of his inaction, are not due.
The minimum allowance
Mesina, now 79 years old, had requested and obtained, through the CGIL, back in 2007, when he returned a free man after the pardon granted to him by the President of the Republic Ciampi, the social pension and not the seniority pension. To obtain the latter he had also sued the Ministry of Grace and Justice asking that he recognize and pay all the contributions of when, during the years spent in prison, he had worked as a tailor. But the pension that had been obtained by Grazianeddu was the social one. The minimum allowance, granted to him because he did not have assets in his name and which was promptly withdrawn every month, until July 2020.
Stop the check
The social pension had been revoked immediately, at the request of the Public Prosecutor of Cagliari, after the declaration of inaction by Mesina who had escaped capture on the same day as the final sentence of 30 years in the Supreme Court for association and drug trafficking. Revocation arrived by virtue of the law on citizenship income which provides for the stop to the allowance paid by all social security institutions (not only INPS, but also social security funds) towards fugitives. For the lawyers, that revocation lapsed at the moment of arrest on the night between 17 and 18 December last in Desulo. Grazianeddu was hiding in the home of two spouses, and was captured by the Carabinieri del Ros and by the military of the Nuoro provincial command.
Fabio Ledda