WORLD BRIEFING / ITALY
A court in Sicily says a man accused of Mafia ties can be held at home instead of jail because he is suffering from depression.
Giacomo Iene’s lawyer, Giuseppe Lipera, says his client has lost 55 pounds since being arrested in 2006 on charges of Mafia connections and that he cries constantly. The tribunal in Catania says even detention in a hospital is dangerous to his health and that his family is “indispensable” to his well-being.
Lipera rejected criticism from politicians worried of the precedent being set for accused mobsters.
The lawyer says the real scandal is that his client has been incarcerated for three years awaiting trial because of Italy’s notoriously slow judicial system.
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