Mob trial starts via video link

PALERMO - The Mafia's "boss of bosses" went on trial yesterday via a video-link from a high-security prison.

The trial comes three weeks after Bernardo Provenzano's arrest ended 43 years as a fugitive.

Provenzano, on trial along with other mobsters for dozens of murders, was shown on a court television sitting calmly at a prison in central Italy with court documents on a table in front of him. He communicated by telephone with his lawyer at the Palermo courthouse. It is common practice in Italy that high-profile mobsters be kept in jail rather than risking a high-security transfer to court.

The 73-year-old and his predecessor, Toto "the Beast" Riina, who ruled the Mafia until his arrest in 1993, appeared on the same split screen.

The case against Provenzano, Riina and dozens of other mobsters deals with more than a decade of Mafia crimes including the 1991 murder of Libero Grassi, the owner of a textile company outside Palermo who refused to pay a large monthly "pizzo"or extortion payment.

The judge agreed to a request from Provenzano to instruct television reporters and photographers not to retransmit images of him shown during the court hearing.

- REUTERS