Last Thursday, the court of Locri (Calabria) sentenced the 63-year-old Domenico “Mimmo” Lucano to 13 years and 2 months of prison for ‘aiding and abetting illegal immigration’ and related charges.
Lucano is well known across Europe and beyond for welcoming and integrating migrants into his community and thereby revitalising the southern Italian town by loaning empty homes to refugees, thus creating jobs and public works.
Last week’s court ruling gained considerable international attention. The former mayor who said he would appeal the sentence will remain under house arrest.
Lucano was put under house arrest in 2018 shortly after far-right then interior minister Matteo Salvini (Lega) announced a series of additional anti-migration measures.
The Party of the European Left hast issued this statement:
"The European Left considers Mimmo Lucano’s experience as a mayor to be part of its own history. We declare ourselves his accomplices in the crime of solidarity and we moblize in his defence. This sentence is a dark page in the history of Italian jurisprudence and represents a real attack on the Constitution of the Italian Republic."