Milan prosecutors have signed
an order blocking the release from jail of a man suspected of
killing prosecutor Bruno Caccia in Turin in 1983, the suspect's
defence team said Tuesday.
As a result Rocco Schirripa, a 63-year-old baker who worked
on the outskirts of Turin, is still in Milan's Opera prison,
where he was taken after being arrested in December 2015.
Earlier on Tuesday Schirripa's lawyers had said that a court
had upheld a petition for his release after prosecutors realised
there was a procedural problem.
But the prosecutors managed to reopen the case and have
Schirripa put back under investigation, sources said.
On Wednesday the Milan court that had ordered Schirripa's
release will decide how to move forward.
The justice ministry is opening a probe into the handling of
the case, sources said.
Schirripa's lawyers said that any illegitimate evidence
against their client must not be used.
Schirripa was arrested after investigators sent an anonymous
letter to Domenico Belfiore, a former kingpin of Calabria's
'Ndrangheta mafia in Piedmont who is serving a life sentence for
the assassination
The letter contained the photocopy of a newspaper article
reporting the mobster's 1983 arrest with the name Rocco
Schirripa - who was in the service of the Belfiore family at the
time of the assassination - written on the back.
Investigators then probed his reaction using wire-taps.
Caccia was shot dead on the evening of June 26, 1983 while
he was out walking his dog near his home in Turin.
Investigators claim he was first shot and wounded by
Belfiore from a car before being finished off by Schirripa with
a bullet to the head.
Caccia was investigating numerous alleged 'ndrangheta
crimes including abductions at the time.
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