Their names are Francesco Bonura and Vincenzino Iannazzo. Both are sentenced to long terms in prison for mafia crimes, but they are released from prison and from the high-security wing. They are old or in poor health, and they could face coronavirus infection in prison. You can go home, to Palermo or to Lamezia Terme. They can receive visitors in house arrest, but only people with pure reputation. They may leave the house if health or important family motives so require. This is how the detention judges decided, contrary to the relevant legislation, which expressly prohibits any mitigation for Mafiosi of their calibre.
There are 750 serious criminals, among them high-ranking mafia bosses, who are on a list of the Ministry of Justice and who, thanks to the coronavirus, can now hope to be released early for health and age reasons. Of course, the state has a duty to protect the health of prisoners. In order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the prisons, a general visit ban was issued. This sparked protests in and in front of over 20 prisons in March, which were apparently orchestrated. Later, the early release was ordered by those prisoners who only had to serve a remaining sentence of up to 18 months. This created space in the chronically overcrowded prisons – the measure seems appropriate and proportionate.
Now, however, identified serious criminals are put under house arrest and are de facto granted many years of their sentence. This leads to loud protest in Italian media. In addition to the virus plague, Italy is now threatened by a new mafia plague, the magazine writes “L’Espresso”. The alleviation of detention was a slap in the face of all relatives of mafia victims and also all officials who were at great risk in the fight against organized crime said a senior Judge. The state let itself be blackmailed by the prison riots.
