Rome, 23 March (AKI) - Prison food wasn’t good enough for an Italian inmate convicted for associating with the mafia who was released because there were too many beans on the menu.

A judge in the Abruzzo region in central Italy this week released Michele Aiello to a year of house arrest because his legume allergy was not compatible with the penitentiary’s cooking consisting mainly of pasta or rice with peas, cuttlefish and peas, and bean soup, according to local news reports.

“Prison fare does not permit a diet adequate for the inmate,” the judge Laura Longo said, according to an article by the Corriere del Mezzogiorno newspaper.

In her ruling, Longo cited article 9 of a law governing penitentiaries that requires prison food to be ‘’adequate, healthy, sufficient for the age, gender, sate of health, work season and climate.”

Businessman Aiello was sentenced to 15 ½ years in prison. Investigators say he falsely declared himself to be the owner of assets that actually belonged to legendary mafia ‘’boss of bosses’’ Bernando Provenzano who in 2006 was arrested in Sicily living in shepherd's shack after 43 year on the run.