Palermo Judge Sentences Rosalia Messina Denaro to 14 Years in Prison
The Palermo gup (judge for preliminary hearings), Clelia Maltese, has sentenced Rosalia Messina Denaro, sister of mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, to 14 years in prison on charges of aggravated mafia association and receiving stolen goods. The trial was conducted through a fast-track procedure. Rosalia has been in prison since March 2023, just weeks after the raid in which "Matteo" was surprised and arrested by the Ros (Special Operations Group) at the La Maddalena clinic in Palermo.
According to the prosecution, represented in court by prosecutors Gianluca De Leo and Pierangelo Padova, Rosalia Messina Denaro helped her mafia boss brother evade capture for years and managed the mafia family's "cash" and the network for transmitting ‘pizzini’ (small paper notes), thus enabling the boss to maintain communication with his men during his long period as a fugitive, which ended with his arrest on January 16, 2023. Matteo Messina Denaro died last September from an incurable disease.
On March 29, the prosecution had requested a 20-year sentence for the defendant, who was considered the true alter ego of the criminal. It was from her that the investigations leading to the mafia boss's arrest began. In a house available to Rosalia Messina Denaro, a ‘pizzino’ detailing the Castelvetrano boss's illness was found hidden inside the metal leg of a chair.
