Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne paid a working visit to Rome on Tuesday to examine how our country should organize the detention of those responsible for narcoterrorism. Indeed, Italy has a solid experience in the fight against organized crime. Among other things, the minister visited a prison with a special wing where mafia bosses are incarcerated under a strict regime. He then spoke with the Italian Minister of Justice and the anti-mafia prosecutor.
“We know that the fight against organized crime in our country is a long and difficult fight. It’s not just about punishing, but about ensuring that mafia bosses are cut off from their networks after their conviction. The Italians managed to break the back of the mafia. Likewise, we are not starting from scratch. Indeed, in our fight against terrorism, we have already isolated the most radical individuals in the past. A taskforce is now examining the elements of the Italian approach that could be implemented in our country”, explains the Minister
The fight against organized crime is not limited to prosecuting criminals, seizing their criminal assets and handing down and enforcing prison sentences. “In prison too, these bigwigs must be prevented from continuing to run their criminal networks to continue their trafficking, or even from recruiting new people for this purpose within the prison. It is therefore important to provide a highly secure environment.”
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Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne and a delegation from the Belgian prison administration met in Rome, among others, the Italian Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio, the national anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo, the director of the Italian prison administration Giovanni Russo and the director of the Italian administration’s Special Intervention Unit, Colonel Augusto Zaccariello. They have solid experience and expertise in the implementation of sentences handed down to mafia leaders. Italy is a country that has succeeded in reducing the historical omnipotence of the mafia.
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A decades-long struggle against the mafia
Historically, the Mafia had a significant hold on society. Mainly, southern regions such as Sicily, Calabria and the Naples region continued to suffer for many decades. But since the 1980s things have changed. The judges John Falcone et Paolo Borsellino spearheaded the fight against the Italian mafia and managed to send more than 300 mafiosi behind bars, for a total of 2,665 years in prison. But they paid with their lives in 1992 when they were murdered in cold blood. Their death and the wave of indignation that followed prompted Italian justice and society to go to war against the mafia more than ever.
It was clear that incarcerating the crime lords in an ordinary prison was not enough to stop the mafiosi. To completely break the power of these crime lords, it was important to cut them off from their networks while they were incarcerated. Less than a month after the attack on Giovanni Falcone, a new prison regime was introduced for this purpose, under the name of article 41-bis. In this context, the leaders of the mafia are strictly isolated and closely monitored in order to exclude any possible contact with their criminal organization.
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The task force gets to work
Minister Van Quickenborne visited a specialized wing of the prison where the leaders of criminal gangs are incarcerated under such a regime. On this occasion, the details of the measures taken under this regime were discussed. Thus, detainees are constantly monitored by cameras and conversations with their relatives are recorded. A room is provided for video conferencing to avoid having to carry out dangerous transports of mafia bosses to court.
Now Minister Van Quickenborne is having the aspects of this project examined which could be implemented in the Belgian context. To do this, a task force has been set up, made up of specialists from State Security, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Police, the prison administration and the Cabinet of Justice. They will not only look at the technical and procedural aspects, but will also look at what information sharing, prisoner monitoring, prison staff protection and training should look like. The task force will also take into account the experience acquired in the fight against terrorism, more particularly in the so-called deradex wings of the prisons of Hasselt and Ittre.
Anti-Mafia prosecutor Melillo praised our country for its cooperation in the fight against the international drug mafia. The tentacles of the Italian mafia indeed extend into our country.