Finally managed to capture him after 30 years on the run, without a doubt the Italian justice would lose sight of Matteo Messina Denaro, deposed leader of Cosa Nostra. Or allow him to continue reigning over Sicilian organized crime from his penitentiary.
Arrêté mondi dans une clinique de Palerme où il soignait son cancer du colon, le mafieux aussitôt été envoyé à L’Aquila, commune des Abruzzes au center de la péninsule, et plus précisément à la prison des Costarelle, plus grand établissement de haute sécurité From the country. Facility design, rules: On site, every effort is made to avoid any contact between the former sponsor and his family. The following video from Reuters gives an overview of the place.
“no locker”
L’Aquila’s high-security prison has been open since the 1990s and currently houses 160 detainees, including Matteo Messina Denaro since his arrest. According to the Italian press, quoted here by euro newsthe now captured fugitive bragged about his arrival, assuring the guards “he had no prior record.”
The multiple murders that he perpetrated by his hand or sponsored, his participation in attacks such as the one that ended the life of the anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, or the kidnapping and murder of a teenager have earned him, however, several life sentences in absentia. The penitentiary regime that is reserved for him is the echo of this pedigree.
The “41-bis”
Contained in a small cell, Matteo Messina Denaro is subject to article 41-bis of the Penitentiary Code, a specific provision that L’Aquila prison is empowered to apply. This one has been tailor-made for the attention of major criminals and “middle” figures.
Detainees who report to him are thus reduced to solitary confinement and subject to permanent video surveillance. Among the limitations that weigh on them, and that are detailed here, we highlight of course the prohibition of the telephone, that of all interaction with other prisoners, the strict maximum limit of the amounts received from abroad or sent, the impossibility of carrying out recreational activities or sports and a drastic limitation of visits.
Restrictions that explain the deleterious aura surrounding “41-bis”: it is challenged in Italy, including by the Constitutional Court as noted here The stamp, and condemned as a “violation of human rights” at the European level. However, this particularly draconian type of imprisonment can be lifted, particularly if the prisoner in question chooses to cooperate.
The Italian authorities will also guarantee their medical follow-up.
The Italian authorities will also have to remain vigilant on another point: the state of health of Matteo Messina Denaro and the monitoring of his colon cancer, for which he has already been operated on twice. On Wednesday, the head of the oncology department at the Maddalena clinic in Palermo who treated him, Vittorio Gebbia, told Agence France Presse: “His state of health is serious. The disease has accelerated in recent months.”
Matteo Messina Denaro is scheduled to undergo chemotherapy at the San Salvatore hospital in L’Aquila, whose unit is equipped to house prisoners who have suffered from cancer.
Source: BFM TV
