Petition for release of jeweler who killed robbers rejected

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 22 - A Turin judge on Wednesday rejected a petition for Mario Roggero, a 72-year-old Italian jeweler sentenced to 14 years and nine months in prison for shooting dead two robbers and wounding a third as they fled after a heist at his store in 2021, to be released from Milan's Bollate Prison. Judge Elena Massucco said the defence had not presented factors showing circumstances of necessity for her to authorize the release, although the request is now set to be referred to other judicial offices. The case of Roggero, who entered prison last week after the supreme court upheld his conviction, making it definitive, has caused widespread dismay and outrage in Italy. Premier Giorgia Meloni said Sunday that Roggero's punishment was "disproportionate" and several members of the government have called for him to be granted a pardon. Elon Musk has joined the outcry on Monday, calling the case "insane" in a response on his X social-media platform to a post by a user about Roggero's conviction and saying the judge and the prosecutor are the ones who deserve the conviction. Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini has visited Roggero in prison twice and his League party is presenting a bill to change the law on self-defence so that "any reaction in the immediate aftermath of an armed attack in the home or in a store" is covered by it. However, the League's coalition partners in the centre-right Forza Italia party have given a cold reception to the proposal. Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, meanwhile, has revived a bill presented two years ago that would make it impossible for those who have committed series crimes to obtain compensation from their victims in such cases. Roggero has been ordered to pay 480,000 euros in damages to the robbers' relatives, something Meloni has blasted as paradoxical. Salvini returned to the case on Tuesday on the sidelines of a military ceremony in Rome, saying he hopes Roggero will not be in jail for long. "Unfortunately, Mario Roggero is in prison, and I hope he gets out as soon as possible," Salvini said. "The sentence is final, but it can also be served via alternative means, such as house arrest, socially useful work, or community service, so I am counting on Mario spending as little time as possible in an Italian prison". (ANSA).