The health of Italy’s most famous gangster, Matteo Messina Denaro, who was arrested on Monday and is suffering from cancer, is “serious,” said Wednesday a doctor at the Sicilian clinic where the man was arrested after 30 years on the run.
“His condition is serious. The disease has accelerated in recent months,” Vittori Gebbia, head of the oncology department at the Maddalena Clinic in Palermo, told La Repubblica newspaper.
Matteo Messina Denaro underwent surgery for colon cancer in 2020 and then in 2022.
“I would not say that he is a healthy patient,” added Mr. Gebbia, who was asked by the journalist about the statements made by the prosecutor Paolo Guido, who said during the arrest that he had found a man “in good health”. .
Doctor Gebbia also clarified that the carabinieri who arrested Matteo Messina Denaro were attentive to his state of health.
“The Carabinieri asked me if there would be any consequences in postponing the chemotherapy cycle he should have had by a few days and I signed the approval because such a slight delay would not affect his health will,” he assured.
After his arrest in Palermo, Matteo Messina Denaro was transferred to a maximum security prison in L’Aquila, Abruzzo.
He is being held in solitary confinement and, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, is being taken to receive chemotherapy at the San Salvatore Hospital in L’Aquila, which has a unit for this type of prisoner.