Guido Gianni has part of his 12-year sentence wiped out, in a case that echoes - but is distinct from - that of Mario Roggero.Italian president Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday granted three pardons, including a partial one to a Sicilian jeweller who shot dead two robbers in 2008 and wounded a third.The Quirinale named only one of the beneficiaries; the other two were identified by their initials. Who was pardoned Guido Gianni, 66, from Nicolosi near Catania, was finally convicted in 2021 of double murder and attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years and four months. Mattarella cancelled three years and two months of the sentence. Gianni has already served five years and three months, leaving him with just under four years, a length that allows the supervisory court to consider letting him serve the remainder on probation with social services.The second beneficiary, identified as A.A., was born in 1972 and had been sentenced to seven years for drug-related offences. Mattarella wrote off the whole remaining term, five years and five months, citing his very serious and irreversible health problems and favourable opinions from both judicial authorities. The third, G.B., born in 1981, had been sentenced to ten years for drug offences committed between 2002 and 2009. He received a partial pardon of one year and nine months. The supervisory magistrate said he had begun and consolidated a path of social, work and family reintegration, and Mattarella also took into account the health of his minor daughter. His remaining sentence also falls below four years.   The Gianni case On 18 February 2008, three men burst into Gianni's jewellery shop and threatened his wife, Maria Angela Distefano, with a pistol that turned out to be a blank-firing replica. Gianni, who legally owned a gun, fired, first in the air and then at the robbers. Two men, both aged 21, were killed; a third, a 30-year-old with a criminal record, was wounded. Gianni said he acted to defend his wife and family and did not intend to kill. But the courts found that the fatal shots were fired as the robbers fled, with expert reports indicating they were hit in the back. Self-defence was therefore ruled out. His wife launched a petition for a pardon in 2022. Not the Roggero case Gianni's pardon has revived comparisons with Mario Roggero, the 72-year-old jeweller from Grinzane Cavour, who was sentenced recently to 14 years and nine months for killing two fleeing robbers and wounding a third in April 2021. Roggero is in Bollate prison awaiting a response to his own pardon request. The two cases share a profile, but reports in the Italian media stress that the similarity ends there. News agency ANSA noted that the facts, court histories and personal circumstances differ, and each pardon is assessed individually. Newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano pointed to one substantial difference: Gianni had already served more than five years, and the supervisory magistrate gave a favourable opinion. Nothing in Wednesday's decision grants Roggero anything, though Il Fatto claimed that it could become a political precedent. How pardons work Article 87 of the Italian constitution gives the president the power to grant pardons, and Article 681 of the code of criminal procedure governs the procedure. A pardon is an individual act of clemency, requires a final conviction, and reduces, cancels or commutes a sentence without erasing the crime. An application can come from the convict, close relatives, a partner, a guardian or a lawyer. It goes to the justice minister, and the procurator general (or, for prisoners, the supervisory magistrate) gathers information and gives an opinion. The minister, currently Carlo Nordio, adds his own opinion and passes the file to the president. A 2006 Constitutional Court ruling made the final decision the president's alone. The president can also grant a pardon without a request, but only after the same inquiry. News outlet Il Post reported that since the start of his second term in 2022, Mattarella had granted 36 pardons out of more than 1,500 applications examined, as of December 2025.   Political reaction Lega leader Matteo Salvini, who visited Gianni in prison in Palermo and has campaigned for Roggero, called the pardon "great news". He argued that someone who reacts to defend themselves and their family after an attack on their business "cannot be treated as a criminal". Forza Italia's Fulvio Martusciello, head of the party's MEPs, praised a decision of "balance and humanity". Gianni's wife thanked Mattarella, calling her husband her hero. The decision follows Mattarella's remarks in July that individual behaviour must respect common rules, and that bending the rules case by case would weaken, not strengthen, security. Photo credit: Juergen Nowak / Shutterstock.com.

Italian president Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday granted three pardons, including a partial one to a Sicilian jeweller who shot dead two robbers in 2008 and wounded a third. The only one of the beneficiaries; the other two were identified by their initials. Guido Gianni, 66, from Nicolosi near Catania, was finally convicted in 2021 of double murder and attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years and four months. Mattarella cancelled three years and two months of the sentence. Gianni has already served five years and three months, leaving him with just under four years, a length that allows the supervisory court to consider letting him serve the remainder on probation with social services.

The second beneficiary, identified as A.A., was born in 1972 and had been sentenced to seven years for drug-related offences. Mattarella wrote off the whole remaining term, five years and five months, citing his very serious and irreversible health problems and favourable opinions from both judicial authorities. The third, G.B., born in 1981, had been sentenced to ten years for drug offences committed between 2002 and 2009. He received a partial pardon of one year and nine months. The supervisory magistrate said he had begun and consolidated a path of social, work and family reintegration, and Mattarella also took into account the health of his minor daughter. His remaining sentence also falls below four years.   On 18 February 2008, three men burst into Gianni's jewellery shop and threatened his wife, Maria Angela Distefano, with a pistol that turned out to be a blank-firing replica. Gianni, who legally owned a gun, fired, first in the air and then at the robbers. Two men, both aged 21, were killed; a third, a 30-year-old with a criminal record, was wounded. Gianni said he acted to defend his wife and family and did not intend to kill. But the courts found that the fatal shots were fired as the robbers fled, with expert reports indicating they were hit in the back. Self-defence was therefore ruled out. His wife launched a petition for a pardon in 2022. Gianni's pardon has revived comparisons with , the 72-year-old jeweller from Grinzane Cavour, who was sentenced recently to 14 years and nine months for killing two fleeing robbers and wounding a third in April 2021. Roggero is in Bollate prison awaiting a response to his own pardon request. The two cases share a profile, but reports in the Italian media stress that the similarity ends there. News agency ANSA noted that the facts, court histories and personal circumstances differ, and each pardon is assessed individually. Newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano pointed to one substantial difference: Gianni had already served more than five years, and the supervisory magistrate gave a favourable opinion. Nothing in Wednesday's decision grants Roggero anything, though Il Fatto claimed that it could become a political precedent. Article 87 of the Italian constitution gives the president the power to grant pardons, and Article 681 of the code of criminal procedure governs the procedure. A pardon is an individual act of clemency, requires a final conviction, and reduces, cancels or commutes a sentence without erasing the crime. An application can come from the convict, close relatives, a partner, a guardian or a lawyer. It goes to the justice minister, and the procurator general (or, for prisoners, the supervisory magistrate) gathers information and gives an opinion. The minister, currently Carlo Nordio, adds his own opinion and passes the file to the president. A 2006 Constitutional Court ruling made the final decision the president's alone. The president can also grant a pardon without a request, but only after the same inquiry. News outlet Il Post reported that since the start of his second term in 2022, Mattarella had granted 36 pardons out of more than 1,500 applications examined, as of December 2025.   Lega leader Matteo Salvini, who visited Gianni in prison in Palermo and has campaigned for Roggero, called the pardon "great news". He argued that someone who reacts to defend themselves and their family after an attack on their business "cannot be treated as a criminal". Forza Italia's Fulvio Martusciello, head of the party's MEPs, praised a decision of "balance and humanity". Gianni's wife thanked Mattarella, calling her husband her hero. The decision follows Mattarella's remarks in July that individual behaviour must respect common rules, and that bending the rules case by case would weaken, not strengthen, security. Photo credit: Juergen Nowak / Shutterstock.com.