Alemanno leaves Rebibbia, after obtaining sentence reduction over grim jail conditions, ahead of meeting with Vannacci.Gianni Alemanno, the former right-wing mayor of Rome, was released from Rebibbia prison on Wednesday, 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. 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. Alemanno served a total of one year, five months and 24 days in Rebibbia. Vannacci The former Rome mayor confirmed to reporters that he would meet Roberto Vannacci, leader of Italy's new far-right Futuro Nazionale party, later on Wednesday. "I will see [Vannacci] tonight for dinner, we will talk about many things, we will discuss many issues. We don't agree on everything, but in my opinion, Vannacci is the new face and the hope of Italian politics" - Alemanno said, adding: "I'm not asking for positions or assignments, I'll simply bring my experience to Vannacci's movement." Earlier this week Vannacci said he would be returning from Brussels specially to meet Alemanno for a dinner with Futuro Nazionale leadership which he framed as "a moment of comparison, proximity and political sharing."  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

Gianni Alemanno, the former right-wing mayor of Rome, was released from Rebibbia prison on Wednesday, 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  and was taken to Rebibbia on 31 December 2024 for having transgressed the terms of a house-arrest sentence he had been serving. 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. Alemanno served a total of one year, five months and 24 days in Rebibbia. The former Rome mayor confirmed to reporters that he would meet Roberto Vannacci, leader of Italy's new far-right Futuro Nazionale party, later on Wednesday. "I will see [Vannacci] tonight for dinner, we will talk about many things, we will discuss many issues. We don't agree on everything, but in my opinion, Vannacci is the new face and the hope of Italian politics" - Alemanno said, adding: "I'm not asking for positions or assignments, I'll simply bring my experience to Vannacci's movement." Earlier this week Vannacci said he would be returning from Brussels specially  with Futuro Nazionale leadership which he framed as "a moment of comparison, proximity and political sharing."  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. 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