Overview

• Flavio Rossi Albertini was reported to the Bar Association on June 5 after greeting his client Alfredo Cospito with a handshake and two kisses following a May 9 prison meeting.
• The Sassari prison director’s complaint questioned whether an affectionate salute was appropriate for a detainee held under the strict 41 bis isolation regime.
• Alfredo Cospito is serving a nine-year, five-month sentence for the attempted murder of Roberto Adinolfi and an attack on a Carabinieri training school.
• Albertini defended his actions as an expression of human empathy and said he would continue showing affection to counteract prisoner dehumanization.
• The Bar Association will now determine if the lawyer’s conduct breached professional ethics, fueling debate over inmate treatment and legal decorum.