Cosy nostra: EU to make jail easier for mafia
European Court of Human Rights ruling hinders fight against mafia, investigators and campaigners argue
ITALY has reacted angrily to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that it should relax conditions for prisoners serving life sentences, including mafia gangsters and terrorists.
The court in Strasbourg ruled that the country’s tough prison regime, applied to mobsters and other criminals who refuse to cooperate with the justice system, is inhuman and degrading.
The decision affects around 1,000 inmates, more than half of whom have been in jail for more than 20 years.
Politicians, anti-mafia investigators and victims’ relatives criticised the ruling, saying it was a “gift to the mafia”.
They said the existing regime helped persuade the most hardened criminals – including mafia bosses – to turn “pentito” (informer) in return for privileges such as day release and, in some cases, being allowed to serve the remainder of their sentence under house arrest.
Softening conditions would undermine the battle against organised crime and terrorism, campaigners argued.
“You must be joking. If you go handin-hand with the mafia, if you destroy the lives of whole families and innocent people, you do prison according to certain rules,” said Luigi Di Maio, the foreign minister and head of the Five Star Movement, one half of the ruling coalition. “No prison time taken off, no conditional liberty. You pay, full stop.”
Federico Cafiero De Raho, the head of the Anti-mafia and Anti-terrorism Directorate, said: “The only thing that mafiosi are scared of is the threat of life imprisonment. Their only glimmer of hope is to collaborate.”
Matteo Salvini, leader of the hardright League party, said: “We need to be nicer to lifers, mafiosi and assassins? Never. As far as I’m concerned, life imprisonment for the worst delinquents should be untouchable.”
Italy introduced uncompromising prison regulations for mafia killers in the Eighties and Nineties after an upsurge in violence by the mob, including Cosa Nostra’s 1992 assassinations of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two leading investigators in Sicily.
Mafia prisoners who do not cooperate with the authorities are not allowed to communicate with the outside world because it is feared they may continue to direct criminal activities.
The court’s ruling revolved around the case of Marcello Viola, a convicted member of the ’Ndrangheta mafia, from Calabria in the far south of Italy. He was jailed for life in 1999 after being found guilty of multiple murders, robbery and kidnapping. He was placed on the toughest prison regime in 2005 after investigators said he tried to maintain contact with the ’Ndrangheta.
Viola refused to cooperate with investigators or to divulge information on other gangsters, for which he was denied privileges such as day passes.
The Strasbourg court did not call for Viola’s release, but it ordered Italy to pay him €6,000 (£5,400) in legal costs.
“We absolutely do not agree with the ruling,” said Alfonso Bonafede, minister of justice. “Any prisoner asking for privileges must show that they are willing to collaborate.”