Covid-19 infection risk
Around 30 mafia bosses, including real heavy calibers, were released from prison in Italy because of the risk of infection with Covid-19 and sent to house arrest. This is not without danger.
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–… Francesco Bonura (78), the founder of the Cosa Nostra clan of Caltagirone,…
–Italian police
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–… Vincenzo Iannazzo (66), a boss of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta,…
–Italian police
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–… and Rocco Santo Filippone (82), who is said to have connections to the Cosa Nostra and the ‘Ndrangheta to this day. But …
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–… the judges refused to release the prisoner for the life sentence Nitto Santapaola. In his solitary confinement, the 82-year-old would hardly be infected with the corona virus.
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- Because of the Corona crisis, the Italian judiciary has also released imprisoned Mafia members to house arrest.
- This decision triggered outraged reactions in politics and society.
- Oddly enough, the original government decree did not provide for mafiosi to be fired. However, the passage was later no longer to be found in the prison authorities’ letter.
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Italy is particularly hard hit by the Corona wave. To alleviate the risk of infection in the chronically overcrowded prisons, punishments were reduced and prisoners with less serious crimes were sent to house arrest. But the corona amnesty also affects heavy boys: In the past few weeks, around 30 imprisoned mafia members have been released into house arrest – most of them in old age and seriously ill, but not all.
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A «bin Laden»
Among them is the convicted Camorra boss Pasquale Zagaria, who is nicknamed “Bin Laden”. He was considered the “economic brain” of the Casalesi cartel, a clan of the Neapolitan Camorra.
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Zagaria, 60, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for mafia crimes in 2007 and was held in solitary confinement in Sassari, Sardinia. Since he has cancer, a court ruled that his health care in the Corona crisis in the detention center could not be guaranteed. Zagaria has now been sent from Sardinia to wife and children in Brescia in Lombardy – a country’s corona hotspot.
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A Mafia boss from Palermo
The Mafia boss from Palermo, who is also suffering from cancer, Francesco Bonura (78) is also allowed to go home. The founder of the Cosa Nostra clan of Caltagirone was sentenced in 2006 to over 18 years in prison. In the 80s he was accused of five different murders and a “Lupara Bianca” (a body that disappeared without a trace), but was able to withdraw from the affair for a long time. Observers fear that he and many other mafiosi released under house arrest could quickly get back in touch with organized crime. His release from solitary confinement was a “national disgrace,” headlined Italian media.
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A brutal money collector
Vincenzo Iannazzo (66), a boss of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, also seriously ill, was released last week into house arrest in Lamezia, Calabria. He was convicted in 2015 of extortion, illegal gun possession, and membership in a mafia organization, among other things. He was so brutal in his extortion of protection money that some entrepreneurs paid the boss money even before he asked them to do so. His lawyers had argued that her client in Spoleto Prison in northern Italy was not adequately protected from being infected with the corona virus.
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A liaison officer
Rocco Santo Filippone (82) is anything but a blank slate. Since 2006, the liaison officer between the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the ‘Ndrangheta has been held because of the murder of two carabinieri and bombings in the 90s. He was released into house arrest last week – unlike his colleagues, the court ruled that Filippone was “too fragile” to wear an ankle bracelet. The prosecutor, who had condemned the mafiosi of his time, is stunned and wants to take action against the relief: there is enough evidence that Filippone is still in contact with Cosa Nostra and the ‘Ndrangheta, which he could reactivate under house arrest.
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A mafios passage that has suddenly disappeared
Relief for the Mafia bosses triggered a storm of indignation in Italy, from the right wing parties to victim organizations. The government alleges that the government is negligent and endangers the security of its citizens if it moves heavy criminals home. The government is of the opinion that in certain cases corona could also be used as an alternative punishment. So the notoriously overcrowded prisons should not become sources of infection.
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However, there was talk that a government decree originally excluded the mafiosi from prison relief – a passage that was then dropped in the circular letter from the prison authorities, such as the Süddeutsche Zeitung writes. The exception that had disappeared was a feast for the lawyers of the Mafiosi, who were now applying for relief for their sick clients.
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At Nitto Santapaola (81), however, this did not work. Santapaola had been the undisputed boss in Catania in the 80s and was notorious for its brutality. His own brother said about him: «He is the cruelest person I have ever met. Adolf Hitler committed fewer murders than he did. Nino needed the killing ». In 1994 Santapaola was sentenced to life in prison for numerous murders. Now the Milan court dismissed the request for relief. Because: In his life-long solitary confinement, the 82-year-old will hardly be infected with the corona virus.
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