The European Court of Human
Rights on Thursday urged Italy to revise its laws mandating life
sentences for certain very serious crimes.
Life terms subject the prisoner to inhuman and degrading
treatment, violating their dignity, the ECHR said.
If there are no appeals, the ECHR ruling will become
definitive in three months.
The court ruling regards Marcello Viola, found guilty of
mafia association, multiple murder and robbery, who has been in
jail since the start of the 1990s.
The ECHR sentence does not mean that Viola should be
released, court sources said.
But Italy was ordered to pay him 6,000 euros in court costs.
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