
A handout photo shows Matteo Messina Denaro Italy’s most wanted mafia boss after he was arrested in Palermo, Italy, January 16, 2023.
11:30 JST, September 25, 2023
ROME, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Italian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who was arrested in January after spending 30 years on the run, has died, AFP reported on Monday, citing Italian media.
Messina Denaro, 61, was suffering from cancer at the time of his arrest. As his condition worsened in recent weeks he was transferred to a hospital from the maximum-security prison in central Italy where he was initially held.
He was convicted of numerous crimes, including for his role in planning the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino – crimes that shocked Italy and sparked a crackdown on the Sicilian mob.
He was also held responsible for bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993 that killed 10 people, as well as helping organize the kidnapping of Giuseppe Di Matteo, 12, to try to dissuade the boy’s father from giving evidence against the mafia. The boy was held for two years, then murdered.
Dubbed by the Italian press as “the last Godfather,” Messina Denaro is not believed to have given any information to the police after he was seized outside a private health clinic in the Sicilian capital, Palermo, on Jan. 16.
According to medical records leaked to the Italian media, he underwent surgery for colon cancer in 2020 and 2022 under a false name. A doctor at the Palermo clinic told La Repubblica newspaper that Messina Denaro’s health had worsened significantly in the months leading up to his capture.
"News Services" POPULAR ARTICLE
-
UPDATE2: Four Japanese Self-Defense Forces members injured in explosion at U.S. Kadena Air Base in Japan’s Okinawa
-
Shooter Kills At Least Nine in Attack on Austrian School, Mayor Says
-
Liberal Lee Jae-Myung Projected to Win South Korea Election Overshadowed by Martial Law Crisis
-
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average Ends Lower on Worries about US-China Trade Tension, Stronger Yen (UPDATE 1)
-
North Korea Fired Multiple-launch Rockets from Near Pyongyang, South Korea Says
JN ACCESS RANKING
-
Japanese Researchers Develop ‘Transparent Paper’ as Alternative to Plastics; New Material Is Biodegradable, Can Be Produced with Low Carbon Emissions
-
Core Inflation in Japan Capital Hits 3.6%, Keeps BOJ Rate-Hike Chance Alive
-
Vietnam, Thailand Aim to Grow Rice Exports to Japan
-
Japan’s Maglev Shinkansen’s Partially Completed Station Unveiled; Station Will Be Only Underground Stop Between Shinagawa, Nagoya
-
Mt. Fuji Eruption: Preparations Necessary for Widespread Ashfall