Italy's high court ruled on Wednesday that a Mafia boss in a high-security jail can have a child with his wife using state-funded assisted fertility techniques.
Salvino Madonia, who is serving a life sentence for Mafia crimes including murder in the central city of l'Aquila, was originally granted authorisation by a Palermo court to become a father again in 2006.
But prison authorities refused Madonia's request to transfer his sperm to a test tube in January 2007 on the grounds that a baby resulting from the fertilisation process could not be properly cared for.
They also said that Madonia's high-security status prevented the procedure from being viable.
The mobster appealed to a local l'Aquila court over the decision, but - while admitting that Madonia would not have to leave the prison, or even his own cell, in order to do what was necessary - it ruled that prison authorities had the final say.
Wednesday's high court ruling overturns the local court's decision.
Madonia is notorious for having killed Libero Grasso, a Palermo businessman who rebelled against the Mob's protection racket.
The Mafia hitman married his wife, Mariangela Di Trapani, when he was already in prison and mysteriously succeeded in making her preganant in 2000 despite being in the high-security jail.
Meetings with relatives in the prison are held via intercom through thick glass.
Investigators suspected for a time that their lawyer had played a hand in the business but this was never proved.
Two other mobsters, Giuseppe and Filippo Graviano, managed the same feat in 1997, becoming fathers while serving time in a high-security jail.
Raffaele Cutolo, the former king of Neapolitan organised crime, became a father from a high-security prison through assisted fertility techniques in October 2007.
