Premier Giuseppe Conte's government
faces a big test on Wednesday when Justice Minister Alfonso
Bonafede is put to two motions of no-confidence in parliament.
Bonafede's 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) have warned another government partner,
ex-premier Matteo Renzi's centrist Italia VIva (IV) party, that
the government will be plunged into crisis if the minister is
ousted,
Bonafede has come under fire over the COVID-related release
of hundreds of mafiosi from prison and over the alleged failure
to appoint anti-mafia prosecutor Nino Di Matteo head of the
prison service in 2018.
Bonafede stressed there had been "no government
interference" in the courts' decisions to release to house
arrest the mafia bosses and mafiosi, most of them seriously ill.
He said that government decrees that have since been approved
would clamp down on such releases, and would bring many of he
mafiosi back to jail after reassessing their health issues.
On Di Matteo, Bonafede said he had decided in 2018 not to
name him head of the prison service so he could take on a role
once held by late anti-mafia crusading magistrate Giovanni
Falcone.
In his speech to the Senate Wednesday, Bonafede said there
had been no pressure placed on the government over the prison
service appointment and he had "cleared away the pseudo doubts"
of his critics.
On the mass release of the mafiosi, he said it was "false"
that he had "opened the doors for dangerous inmates".
He said most of the mafiosi had been granted house arrest
under previous regulations.
Bonafede said 256 inmates convicted of serious crimes and let
out for COVID fears would return to face a judge because of the
government's latest decree on the issue, the second of two.
He denied reports that as many as 497 dangerous inmates had
been released.
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