Mafia 'godfather' remains silent
Thursday, April 20, 2006; Posted: 10:14 a.m. EDT (14:14 GMT)
Bernardo Provenzano is transferred to a maximum security prison in Terni, central Italy.
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? ROME, Italy (AP) -- Accused Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano refused to answer prosecutors' questions Thursday, ending his first official interrogation since his arrest after eight minutes, his lawyer said.
Three prosecutors and a top police official from Palermo, Sicily, questioned Provenzano in the presence of his lawyer, Franco Marasa.
The accused mobster answered the initial, routine queries such as name and date and place of birth, then clammed up as soon as the prosecutors read him his rights, said Marasa, who was reached on his cell phone.
"He said 'I intend to avail myself of my right not to answer,"' Marasa said, quoting his client.
Provenzano was interrogated at the prison in Terni, central Italy, where he is being kept in an isolation cell.
Prosecutors Giuseppe Pignatone, Marzia Sabelli and Michele Prestipino were traveling Thursday afternoon and could not be reached for comment. They did not immediately return a message left at their office in Palermo.
The accused mobster was captured April 11, more than 40 years after he went into hiding, and is believed to have taken over leadership of the Sicilian Mafia following the 1993 arrest of former boss Salvatore "Toto" Riina.
Provenzano was arrested at a rundown farmhouse just outside his hometown of Corleone, which was made famous by "The Godfather" movies.
During his years as a fugitive, Provenzano was convicted in absentia and given life sentences for more than a dozen murders of mobsters and investigators. There are six ongoing cases against him on charges that range from murder to extortion and money laundering, Marasa said.
His first court hearing in one of those cases is scheduled for May 2 at an appeal court in Palermo, and Provenzano is expected to appear via teleconference, his lawyer said.
Marasa said Provenzano cannot be moved, is not allowed visitors and can only meet with his immediate family once a month for one hour.
Asked how Provenzano was doing, Marasa' answered, "Him? Normal," then added that he would not answer "personal" questions.
Police have said that Provenzano communicated with his accomplices through typewritten notes that were written in code to conceal the identities of those he dealt with.
Piero Grasso, national anti-Mafia prosecutor, said Wednesday that investigators were trying to decipher the code with help from a former top Provenzano lieutenant who has become a turncoat.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
