ROME (Reuters) -Jailed top Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has been transferred to hospital, Italian media reported on Tuesday, after one of his lawyers said his health had deteriorated and he needed urgent medical care.
Messina Denaro, 61, was suffering from cancer at the time of his arrest in Palermo in January after 30 years on the run.
He was moved under tight security to the San Salvatore hospital in the central Italian town of L’Aquila, close to the prison where he had been detained, the Ansa news agency reported.
A justice ministry spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Messina Denaro, who had surgery in late June, is now too ill to cope with the strict prison regime imposed on Mafia members, lawyer Alessandro Cerella earlier told the AGI news agency. The former Mafia boss was surviving on a diet of fruit juices and food supplements, he added.
Dubbed “the last Godfather” by the Italian press, 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.
He has multiple convictions for 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 brought a crackdown on the Sicilian mob.
(Writing by Crispian Balmer and Keith Weir, Editing by Alvise Armellini, Angus MacSwan, Peter Graff)