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.
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