Anti-Mafia commission questions top spy

(ANSA) - Rome, September 10 - Members of the national anti-Mafia commission on Wednesday questioned AISE foreign intelligence agency chief Alberto Manenti on the whereabouts of fugitive Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
    Manenti is to answer at the next commission hearing, sources close to the closed-door hearing said.
    Messina Denaro, 52, is one of the world's 10 most wanted men, according to Interpol.
    Investigators have been closing the net around Messina Denaro with a wave of arrests and massive asset seizures since an updated identikit in 2011 gave new impetus to the search.
    In December 2013, police said that they have never been so close to capturing the elusive crime boss.
    The comments came as close relatives of Messina Denaro were among 30 people arrested earlier that month, and some five million euros' worth of assets belonging to his family were seized.
    The December operation came after police in April 2013 confiscated assets worth over 1.3 billion euros belonging to Vito Nicastri, a Sicilian wind-farm and solar-power magnate linked to Messina Denaro, in the biggest-ever assets seizure in the country's history.
    E' quanto si è appreso al termine della seduta, che è stata secretata. In particolare è stato chiesto dove potrebbe trovarsi Messina Denaro e se si suppone sia lontano dalla Sicilia, in un Paese estero. A queste domande Manenti dovrebbe rispondere in una prossima audizione davanti alla Commissione che dovrebbe svolgersi nel giro di poche settimane.