An Italian man convicted in first instance for a 2019 group rape in Sardinia says he will not accept plea deals, insisting he would rather go to prison. In an interview with Telenord, the convicted man said he would not “make any forms of patteggiamenti” or accept any concessions, adding that he would “rather go to jail as an innocent.” The court case concerns a group rape that took place in Sardinia in 2019. He was sentenced to eight years in first instance, according to ANSA. In the same interview, he also claimed there is a causal link between alleged political decisions and an “assedi0 mediatico” and referenced the work of the chair of the Senate Justice Commission, saying she has a bill for the crime under which the case is being processed. His comments were made while the case remains in the court system, following the eight-year first-instance conviction.