Judges Overturn Music Ban for Jailed Mafia Boss

Law can't take away that 'residual personal freedom,' judges in Italy say
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2021 3:41 AM CST
Judge Grant Mafia Boss Right to Play Music in Cell
Mafia inmates still have the right to culture, the judges said.   (Getty Images/DanHenson1)

Even Mafia bosses have the right to music, judges in Italy have ruled. Domenic Strisciuglio, who has been in prison since 1999 for crimes including murder, has won a legal fight to be allowed to listen to music in his solitary prison cell, the Guardian reports. Judges in Sardinia ruled Thursday that the 48-year-old should be allowed to have a CD player in his cell as part of his constitutionally guaranteed right "to exercise a cultural activity." They described the right as part of the "residual personal freedom" that can't be violated by any form of detention, per La Repubblica. Under an Italian law criticized by human rights groups, Mafia inmates face much harsher prison regulations than other inmates to stop them communicating with each other or associates outside of prison. (More Italy stories.)

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