The 78-year-old Sardinian, who had spent more than 40 years in prison, has to serve 24 years in prison for international drug trafficking, according to media reports. Mesina, who was in prison for kidnapping and multiple murders, is considered a hero for the autonomists of Sardinia. His successful escape attempts were legendary. In 2004 he was pardoned and released by the then Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. However, he was arrested again in 2013 for drug trafficking. He was released again in June 2019. Last July, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for international drug trafficking after the Rome Supreme Court rejected an appeal.
The “honorable bandit” who terrorized the Mediterranean island in the 1960s and 70s was born in the Orgosolo pastoral community. He was arrested at the age of 14 for illegally possessing weapons. After that he began a long criminal career. His raids became internationally known. A myth arose around him that made him a folk hero in Sardinia. He was called “King of the Mountains” because of his talent for hiding kidnapped industrialists and politicians in the steepest mountains on the island.
Mesina, also known by the nickname “Grazianeddu”, managed to break out of trains, barracks and high-security institutions. He enjoyed so much respect among his compatriots that in 1992 he was able to mediate in the Kassam kidnapping case from prison. The kidnappers of the seven-year-old Faruk Kassam, who was kidnapped in Sardinia in 1992, had cut off part of the boy’s ear and sent it to his parents in order to obtain a ransom. The child, the son of a hotelier on the Costa Smeralda, was finally freed after seven months of imprisonment.
Source: Nachrichten
