GUZZARDI v. ITALY JUDGMENT 9 dangerous. However, those exigencies necessitated neither separating those concerned from their families nor depriving them of regular employment. Accordingly, the Regional Court, whilst rejecting both applications, directed that the text of its decision be communicated to the Minister of the Interior and to the Sassari questore. 21. On 21 July 1976, the Milan questore requested the Milan Regional Court to order Mr. Guzzardi’s transfer to the district of Force, in the province of Ascoli Piceno, on the Italian mainland. The reason advanced was that the simultaneous presence on Asinara of the applicant and of his co-accused (coimputato), Ignazio Pullarà, who was also in the process of "serving" (scontare) a compulsory residence measure, might have unfortunate repercussions on the ensuing stages of the criminal proceedings and, above all, on security on the island. The Regional Court (vacation Chamber) gave a decision to that effect, and for the same reasons, on the following day; it specified that the remainder of its decision of 30 January 1975 (see paragraph 12 above) was to continue in force. 22. Mr. Guzzardi had to remain at Force until 8 February 1978, on which date the three-year period fixed by the last-mentioned decision expired. C. The applicant’s stay on the island of Asinara 1. Description of the locality 23. Asinara lies off the north-west tip of Sardinia. The island, which is long and narrow with a rugged terrain, measures about 20 km. at its greatest length. Whilst the island as a whole covers 50 sq. km., the area reserved for persons in compulsory residence represented a fraction of not more than 2.5 sq. km. This area was bordered by the sea, roads and a cemetery; there was no fence to mark out the perimeter. About nine-tenths of the island was occupied by a prison. 24. Administratively, the island forms an integral part of the district of Porto Torres, a small Sardinian coastal town one hour away by boat. The southernmost point of the island can also be reached in fifteen minutes if one embarks at Stintino, to the north of Porto Torres. Sea communications are interrupted during very bad weather. 25. The principal settlement on the island, Cala d’Oliva, houses nearly all of the island’s permanent population - approximately two hundred people; this population comprises the prison staff and their families, schoolteachers, a priest, the post office employees and a few tradesmen. The persons in compulsory residence were lodged in the hamlet of Cala Reale which consists mainly of a former medical establishment and certain other buildings including a school, a chapel and a carabinieri station where the applicant had to report twice a day (see paragraph 12 above).