Jailed Mafia boss Matteo Messina
Denaro is in intensive care in hospital in the city of L'Aquila
after undergoing surgery on Tuesday, Abruzzo's prisons ombudsman
Gianmarco Cifaldi said on Wednesday.
"Matteo Messina Denaro has woken up after the operation, which
went very well," Cifaldi said of the cancer-suffering inmate.
"He is conscious and active.
"He is in intensive care, which is simply standard procedure
after an operation of the kind".
On Tuesday the mobster's lawyer Alessandro Cerella said the
61-year-old's health condition "has deteriorated" and it is "not
compatible" with the tough 41 bis jail regime he was being held
under.
He was taken from L'Aquila's maximum-security jail and to the
city's San Salvatore hospital for the operation on Tuesday.
"The (length of) the hospital stay depends on a combination of
factors, from the health consultations to the assessments of the
penitentiary department on the necessary actions to guarantee
internal and external security," Cifaldi said.
"All actions are aimed at guaranteeing the Constitutional rights
of both the boss and all free people".
When asked about whether Messina Denaro should continue to be
held in the 41 bis regime, Cifaldi replied: "we guarantee the
right to health with qualified medical personnel and all the
agencies of the State are working in compliance with the
Constitution, including me".
Messina Denaro was caught in mid-January at a Palermo cancer
clinic after 30 years on the run.
The Cosa Nostra superboss has been convicted for his involvement
in dozens of murders, including the 1992 bombings that killed
anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
In addition to the Falcone and Borsellino assassinations, he has
been condemned for the killing of Giuseppe Di Matteo, the
12-year-old son of a mobster-turned-State witness who was
strangled and dissolved in acid in 1996, and bombings at art and
religious sites in Milan, Florence and Rome that killed 10
people and hurt 40 more in 1993.
On Tuesday the transcription of his questioning with prosecutors
after his arrest was deposited.
During the questioning he said would never turn State witness,
that he learned about the existence of the Mafia from the
newspapers and that the police had only managed to capture him
because of his illness.
He also denied having killed Giuseppe Di Matteo.
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