LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The 50-year-old Italian national arrested by Maltese police has been identified as Antonino Ciavarello, son-in-law of the late Sicilian boss-of-bosses Totò Riina.
Ciavarello is expected to be extradited to Sicily to serve jail time. He was arraigned under arrest the day after his 50th birthday.
Ciavarello, who appeared in court wearing clothes covered in construction dust, was unable to stand up in the dock. Speaking quietly, the Italian national gave an address in Mosta as his place of residence. He told the court he was employed as a driver with a construction company based in San Gwann.
In 2017, Ciavarello was arrested in Puglia to serve six months under house arrest for fraud. Ciavarello, who then lived at San Pancrazio with his wife, was found guilty of a scam perpetrated at Termini Imerese in 2009.
This afternoon Ciavarello was taken to court in Valletta. The court asked Ciavarello whether he consented to being returned to Italy. He declared that he did.
Police Inspector Roderick Spiteri confirmed that Ciavarello was arrested on the strength of two European Arrest Warrants issued by the Italian authorities. He exhibited copies of the original arrest warrant and the related Schengen Information System alert.
Inspector Spiteri explained that the two European Arrest Warrants had been issued in connection with two separate court sentences. The two warrants order him to be jailed for two years and pay a euro 100,000 fine, and another eight months prison sentence.
Lawyer Thomas Barbara Sant, assisting Ciavarello told the court that his client had been aware of the judgments but had not known he had been sentenced to imprisonment.
– credit photo agenziafotogramma –
(ITALPRESS).
