Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, captured in January after three decades on the run, has died in hospital in central Italy, the local mayor confirmed yesterday.
The 61-year-old had been treated for colon cancer while detained in a high-security jail in L’Aquila, but was moved last month to hospital after his condition deteriorated.
L’Aquila Mayor Pierluigi Biondi confirmed the mobster’s death in hospital “following a worsening of his illness” in a statement to the ANSA news agency, which had earlier broken the news.
Photo: EPA-EFE / CARABINIERI
His death “puts the end to a story of violence and blood,” Biondi said, thanking prison and hospital staff for their “professionalism and humanity.”
It was “the epilogue of an existence lived without remorse or repentance, a painful chapter of the recent history of our nation,” he said.
Messina Denaro was one of the most ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the Godfather movies.
He was convicted by the courts of involvement in the murder of anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone in 1992, and deadly bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993.
One of his six life sentences was also handed down for the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the 12-year-old son of a witness in the Falcone case.
Messina Denaro disappeared in the summer of 1993 and spent the next 30 years on the run as the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mob, but he remained the top name on Italy’s most-wanted list and increasingly became a figure of legend.
It was his decision to seek treatment for his cancer that led to his capture. He was arrested on Jan. 16 when he visited a health clinic in Palermo.
He was jailed in L’Aquila, where he continued treatment in his cell, but was moved to hospital last month under heavy security.
Since Friday night last week, he had been reported to have been in an “irreversible coma.”
Medics had stopped feeding him and he had asked not to be resuscitated, Italian media reports said.
His arrest might have brought some relief for his victims, but the mob boss always maintained his silence.
In interviews in custody after being arrested, Messina Denaro even denied he was a member of the Cosa Nostra.
After Messina Denaro went on the run, there was intense speculation that he had gone abroad — and he likely did — but in the end he was found to have been staying near his hometown of Castelvetrano in western Sicily.
Preparations are already under way for his burial in the family tomb in the town, alongside his father, Don Ciccio, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
Don Ciccio was also head of the local clan. He was said to have died of a heart attack while on the run.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS