Mafia boss s conviction upheld for lethal bombing

Rome Feb 21 (IANS/AKI) Italy s apex court has upheld a life sentence for Sicilian mafia boss Francesco Tagliavia over his role in the 1993 bombing of a gallery in Florence that killed five people and wounded 40.

Tagliavia supplied the explosives used in the blast on May 27 in a street near the world-famous Uffizi Gallery Italy s Supreme Court of Cassation ruled on Monday.

The court ordered Tagliavia to pay compensation including to the Tuscany region and Florence city council and will issue the reasoning behind Monday s sentence within 90 days.

The Uffizi blast was followed by car bombings in July that year in Rome near the churches of St. John Lateran and San Giorgio al Velabro and close to a modern art gallery in central Milan that killed five people.

Prosecutors allege the wave of bombings was carried out by the Sicilian mafia in a bid to force the Italian government to ease harsh prison conditions for mafia convicts.

--IANS/AKI
mr/