Overview

• Stefano Argentino’s high-risk suicide watch was lifted around mid-July after assessments by prison psychologists, and he was placed in a shared Gazzi prison cell before hanging himself on August 6.
• The Procura di Messina has seized his body and launched a non-prosecutorial probe, ordering an autopsy to determine how the surveillance downgrade may have contributed to his death.
• Under Italian law, Argentino’s suicide automatically terminates the criminal proceedings against him, extinguishing the murder trial that was due to begin on September 10.
• His defense lawyer and prison staff unions have accused state authorities of negligence for denying a psychiatric evaluation and prematurely ending his suicide supervision.
• Argentino’s death adds to a rise in prison suicides this year and has intensified calls for systemic reforms in mental-health care and judicial oversight in Italy’s penitentiary system.