Rome's ex-mayor Gianni Alemanno to get out of jail on 24 June

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Alemanno set to leave Rebibbia after obtaining sentence reduction over grim jail conditions. Gianni Alemanno, the former right-wing mayor of Rome, is set to be released from Rebibbia prison on 24 June, following a ruling that reduced his sentence by 39 days on account of inhumane detention conditions. Alemanno, 68, was convicted of influence peddling and illegal party financing in a case connected to the so-called Mafia Capitale investigation - a sprawling probe into a mafia-style syndicate accused of infiltrating Rome's city hall. He was acquitted of other corruption charges in a separate high-profile case and was taken to Rebibbia on 31 December 2024 for having transgressed the terms of a house-arrest sentence he had been serving. Reduced sentence The sentence reduction was granted by the Rome supervisory court, following an application submitted by his lawyer, Edoardo Albertario, citing "inhuman and degrading conditions" in which Alemanno had been detained over the past year. Francesco Storace, the right-wing journalist and former Lazio region president, welcomed the imminent release of his political ally, writing on Facebook: "A torture that lasted too long is over. Goodbye to Rebibbia." Prison diary During his detention, Alemanno conducted a prominent campaign to raise awareness of prison conditions, including co-authoring a book, L'emergenza negata: Il collasso delle carceri italiane, with fellow inmate Fabio Falbo. His weekly Facebook diary entries - part personal account, part political manifesto - attracted considerable attention, and his allies in prime minister Giorgia Meloni's government, including deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini and lower house president Lorenzo Fontana, made conspicuous visits to Rebibbia in a show of solidarity. Overcrowding According to the prison rights association Antigone, Alemanno's case is far from exceptional: in 2024, some 5,837 detainees were granted sentence reductions for similar reasons, generally because they had been held in cells lacking the minimum three square metres of personal space per person. At the end of 2024, Italy's prisons held 61,861 people; by March 2026, that figure had risen to 64,000, according to newspaper Il Sole 24 ORE. Alemanno - who served as Italy's agriculture minister from 2001 to 2006 and mayor of Rome from 2008 to 2013 - has consistently maintained his innocence throughout his legal proceedings. Photo credit: Luca Ponti / Shutterstock.com