Italy’s Mafia prisoner releases spark political fight Center-right opposition parties, smelling blood, are calling for a vote of no-confidence in justice minister.
By HANNAH ROBERTS 5/7/20, 8:44 PM CET Updated 5/8/20, 1:09 PM CET ROME — Until last month, 85-year-old Franco Cataldo was serving a life sentence for his role in one of Italy’s most infamous and traumatic murders: In 1993, Giuseppe Di Matteo, a 12-year-old whose Mafia father had turned state's witness, was kidnapped, held hostage for two years, strangled and dissolved in acid.
Now, because of the coronavirus crisis, Cataldo is among several hundred mafiosi and drug traffickers who have been freed or put under house arrest to lower to risk of mass infection in Italy's overcrowded prisons.
