Mafia attack plans had 'superior entity' (3)

(ANSA) - Palermo, March 8 - Plans to attack Palermo magistrates framed by Cosa Nostra leader Matteo Messina Denaro had a "superior entity" behind them, Palermo chief prosecutor Roberto Scarpinato told the parliamentary anti-mafia commission Wednesday in a hearing on suspected links between the mafia and freemasons in southern Italy.
    On March 1 the anti-mafia commission ordered police to seize the membership lists, from 1990 to today, of freemasons belonging to lodges in Calabria and Sicily. The lodges involved are: Grande Oriente d'Italia; Gran Loggia Regolare d'Italia; Serenissima Gran Loggia d'Italia; Gran Loggia d'Italia degli Antichi Liberi Accettati Muratori. There have been a few recent cases in which some masons have been linked to mafia activities in the two southern Italian regions. The freemasons' lodges have denied having anything to do with Italy's mafias: Cosa Nostra in Sicily, 'Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Camorra in Campania.
    photo: Scarpinato