Jailed Mafia godfather's family slapped with local trash tax arrears

Palermo (Italy), Sep 12 (IANS/AKI) Government officials in the Sicilian mafia stronghold of Corleone are seeking three years of unpaid garbage taxes from jailed mafia 'boss of bosses' Toto Riina's family, said media reports.

Corleone's town council has been dissolved for alleged mafia infiltration and Riina's next of kin have refused to sign for the 1,000 euro trash bill which government commissioners now in charge have tried to deliver to his home, La Repubblica daily reported on Tuesday.

In July, anti-mafia police impounded over 1.5 million euros of assets belonging to 86-year-old Riina and members of his family, mainly in the provinces of Palermo and Trapani, including a villa, plots of land, bank assets and three companies.

Despite previous major seizures of assets belonging to Riina, his family, notably his wife, had enjoyed access to "significant and continuous" amounts of cash, according to investigators.

Riina is believed to be suffering from severe kidney, neurological and heart problems and is being treated in a high-security special ward for prisoners at a hospital in Parma, northern Italy.

An Italian court in July rejected a request from his lawyers to put him under house arrest on health grounds.

Riina was arrested in Palermo in January 1993 after 23 years on the run. He was convicted of over 100 murders, including the slayings of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992.

--IANS/AKI

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