Former Cosa Nostra ailing superboss Salvatore (Toto') Riina is trying yet again to get softer jail terms while he serves out his 12 life sentences, his lawyers confirmed on Friday.
A similar request was rejected a year ago and his special treatment was extended until December 15 of this year.
Attorneys Luca Cianfaroni, Riccardo Donzelli and Valerio Vianello said they had not only asked for the tough conditions of Riina's incarceration to be lifted but also that he be granted greater visiting right with his family.
A parole board visited Riina in Milan's high security Opera Prison on Friday to question him.
The parole board's recommendation whether to lift or extend the imprisonment conditions for the 76-year-old former 'boss of bosses' will be made within the next five days.
Last year, Riina also saw judges throw out his request that be granted house arrest for health reasons.
Aside from having had three heart bypasses, he is also reported to be suffering from back and thyroid problems.
Until his arrest in 1993, Toto 'the Beast' Riina was a leading Mafia don. He was convicted of a range of crimes including ordering the car-bombings that killed anti-Mob
magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
He is subject to very strict jail conditions envisaged by article '41-bis' of Italy's criminal code for dangerous Mafia bosses, terrorists and modern-day 'slave traders'.
Such prisoners can be kept in single-person cells in maximum-security jails, almost entirely cut off from the outside world.
They are not permitted to buy anything or to receive parcels but they can spend up to four hours a day in the open air and are allowed to mix with five other inmates at a time.
Almost 650 prison inmates are currently subject to 41-bis but cases sometimes occur where prisoners have been found to have continued running their affairs from the inside.
The 41-bis was introduced in 1992 as a temporary measure designed to help cope with a Mafia emergency at the time.
In 2002, the measure became a permanent fixture in the penal code.
Amnesty International, the London-based human-rights group, has expressed concern that the 41-bis regime could in some circumstances amount to "cruel, inhumane or degrading
treatment" for prisoners.
