Mario Roggero remains in prison after court rejects sentence deferral

Mario Roggero, a 72-year-old jeweler from Grinzane Cavour, remains in Bollate prison following a ruling by the Turin Surveillance Court. The court rejected a request from his defense to defer his sentence while awaiting a decision on a presidential pardon from President Sergio Mattarella.

Roggero was sentenced to 14 years and nine months for the killing of two robbers and the wounding of a third during an armed robbery at his shop in April 2021. While the court noted that a person reacting to an unprovoked attack cannot be judged with the “precision of a pharmacist’s scale,” it also ruled that self-defense had been definitively excluded from the legal findings.

During a subsequent hearing in Milan, Roggero provided spontaneous statements, remarking that “every life deserves respect” and admitting he could have been “less impulsive and more reflective.” His lawyer, Stefano Marcolini, described these reflections as the beginning of a critical review of his conduct rather than a formal expression of repentance. The Milan court has reserved its decision on the request for house arrest or sentence deferral.