Italy's justice minister is to take action against a judge whose failure to write up a sentence has left Mafia bosses roaming the streets of Sicily.
''Of course I'm going to act. It's my duty to intervene,'' Justice Minister Luigi Scotti told reporters Tuesday.
''Everything in this country is getting absurd''.
The Mafia clan was convicted in 2000 of helping notorious boss Giuseppe Madonia continue to run things from a jail where he was serving several life sentences for murder.
Judge Edi Pinatto, head of the court in the Sicilian city of Gela, sentenced two of Madonia's lower bosses to 24 years each and Madonia's wife to ten. Four other family members got shorter terms. But they all walked in 2002 because Pinati had not gotten around to writing his statutory ''motivation'' for the sentence within the allotted term.
The case leaped to public attention again this week after Gela Mayor Rosario Crocetta appealed to the justice ministry, saying ''it is unthinkable that in a democratic country a judge has still not filed a sentence in eight years, letting an entire Mafia clan walk around free in my city''.
Judge Pinatto, who has since become a public prosecutor in Milan, was interviewed Tuesday by Rome daily La Repubblica. Asked if he knew the two bosses and Madonia's wife had been free for six years, Pinatto was quoted as saying: ''Yes of course I know. But it isn't the first time that things like this have happened and I'm not the only one who takes so much time. I'll write to you in a few months after I've worked my way through the cases you can see piled up on my desk''.
Pinatto has failed to put pen to paper despite receiving two formal reprimands from the Italian judiciary's self-governing body, the CSM.
He reportedly defended himself by saying: ''Yes, of course, it is a scandalous case, but there are others just like it''.
The last case of what Italians call 'slow justice' involving Mafiosi came just ten days ago.
Ministers voiced indignation after the son of Mafia superboss Toto' 'The Beast' Riina walked free halfway through an eight-year racketeering sentence because judges had failed to lodge an appeal at the high Court of Cassation within the statutory term.
After the statute of limitations kicked in, Riina Jr was sprung to walk the streets of Corleone.
Minister Scotti took over as caretaker from Justice Minister Clemente Mastella a month ago, when Mastella brought Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition down and forced snap elections after being implicated in a judicial probe.
Since his appointment Scotti has already started disciplinary proceedings against seven judges. photo: Justice Minister Luigi Scotti
