Riina trial put off for ill health

(ANSA) - Milan, October 17 - A trial of Salvatore Riina for issuing death threats against a Milan jail warden was put off for a week because the 86-year-old former Mafia boss of bosses was too ill to be moved from a hospital detention ward. Riina, on trial for threatening the life of Opera jail chief Giacinto Siciliano, presented a certificate saying he was too poorly to take part in a videolink session from a Parma hospital. The DAP prison authority said Riina had not undergone an operation.
    In July a Bologna court rejected a petition from Riina's lawyers for his punishment to be deferred and a related request for him to be released to house arrest due to his poor health.
    As a result, Riina stayed under the hard 41bis jail regime at a special section for prisoners of the Parma hospital.
    In June the supreme Court of Cassation said Riina was entitled to a dignified death and instructed a detention review court to say whether he should be freed, sparking protests from the relatives of his many victims.
    After visiting him, the chair of the parliamentary anti-mafia commission, Rosy Bindi, said his conditions were better than they would be if he were sent home.
    Riina, nicknamed The Beast for his ferocity, is serving life for a slew of crimes including the assassinations of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino 25 years ago.
    Another infamous assassination was that of Carabinieri General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, who had recently appointed prefect of Palermo, in 1982.