(ANSA) - Rome, October 8 - The supreme Court of Cassation on Monday rejected a petition by Giovanni Brusca, the Sicilian mafia boss who set off the explosive that killed anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in 1992, to be released from jail to house arrest. Falcone's sister Maria welcomed the decision, having argued Brusca did not deserve further benefits after "receiving over 80 permits" in exchange for supplying police with information on the Mob. She said he had never shown real evidence of having turned over a new leaf and repented for his crimes, which included strangling and dissolving in acid a 15-year-old boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo, who was the son of a mafia informant.

"You may accept the idea that criminals who cooperate with the State are granted benefits for a higher goal," said Maria Falcone.

"But it remains unacceptable to give further concessions to someone soiled by such heinous crimes". Former national anti-mafia prosecutor and former Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso said that, while he respected the ruling, he did not think the State should treat Brusca the same way as late Cosa Nostra bosses Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano.

"It is right that Riina and Provenzano remained in jail until their deaths, but someone like Brusca cannot be assessed in the same way," Grasso told Tuesday's Corriere della Sera. "He has spent over 23 years in prison and in two years' time his sentence will be served. "He gets permits that, in some ways, give him more freedom than house arrest.

"It shows that cooperating (with the State) pays".

