Life may not mean life for jailed mafia bosses

Locking up unrepentant mafiosi until they die is too harsh a punishment, a top Italian court has said in a ruling that could result in some of the country’s most feared mobsters being freed.

Under Italy’s tough treatment of gangsters, mafia inmates serving life sentences can obtain early parole only if they give evidence against their old friends. In contrast, lifers who were not part of a crime syndicate can qualify for gradual release after 26 years.

The rule, introduced after the Sicilian mafia murdered two magistrates in 1992, has led to crime bosses handing over vital secrets to win their freedom.

But Italy’s constitutional court has ruled that the measure is unlawful, arguing that bosses sometimes refused to become turncoats not because they were hardened criminals, but because they were terrified that their families would be killed by vengeful gangsters.

As such, the judges reasoned, the mobsters were unfairly denied the right offered to other inmates to leave jail before their death. They faced a ‘‘tragic choice’’, the court said, between collaborating with the authorities and winning their freedom while endangering their loved ones, or staying silent and locked up in their cells.

The court argued that mobsters who did turn state’s evidence were not always truly repentant and worthy of early release, but merely taking advantage of the system to get out.

The European Court of Human Rights reached a similar conclusion in 2019. The Italian constitutional court has asked parliament to change the law by May next year.

Not all bosses have turned evidence to reduce their life sentences. Toto Riina, the feared leader of the Cosa Nostra, died in jail aged 87 in 2017, taking to his grave secrets of mob wars, murders and deals with politicians.