Italy's parliamentary intelligence
services oversight committee (COPASIR) said Wednesday the
domestic secret service agency formerly known as SISDE and DAP
national prison department broke the law in a 2003-2004
operation called Butterfly.
The two agencies are accused of colluding to bypass the
judiciary to mount the operation, which entailed approaching
organized crime bosses being held under the maximum security
41-bis prison regime.
SISDE - which has since been reformed and renamed AISI -
interpreted the law "in an arbitrary way" and DAP took on a role
"that is incompatible with its prerogatives and lies outside the
assigned perimeter", COPASIR said in its report.
Former SISDE chief Mario Mori in 2014 reportedly said
Operation Butterfly was activated in fear of a possible new wave
of Mafia massacres against civilian and official targets at a
time of frequent protests - both within and outside prison walls
- against the tough 41-bis regime.
The regime reserved for Italy's most dangerous criminals
suspends some prison regulations and calls for the inmates to be
held practically in isolation and almost entirely cut off from
the outside world in order to prevent further criminal activity.
SISDE decided to question eight mob bosses who were being
held in maximum security, and since they couldn't do so by law
they asked DAP agents to do so in their stead.
The operation was shut down after a year and a half because
it gave no results, Mori said.
Premier Matteo Renzi last year declassified Operation
Butterfly, which one MP called "an anomalous collaboration
between the secret services and the prison administration with
no judiciary oversight".
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