(NEW YORK POST) – The family of an Italian boy who was dissolved in acid — in an attempt to intimidate his Mafioso-turned-rat father — has been awarded $2.3 million in damages over his death.

Giuseppe di Matteo, the son of La Cosa Nostra member Santino di Matteo, was kidnapped and tortured over a period of nearly 800 days in 1993, according to The Local Italy.

The boy was taken when he was 11 by Giovanni Brusca, a Sicilian Mafia boss who’s believed to have killed as many as 200 people.

Mobsters were trying to bully Santino into withdrawing his testimony in the Mafia’s 1992 murder of Italian judge Giovanni Falcone. Santino flipped after his arrest in 1993.

But the defiant father refused to do so, prompting rivals to strangle his young son and dissolve his body in acid to destroy evidence and prevent the family from holding a proper burial.

Recently, a court in Palermo ruled that the boy’s mother and brother will receive 2.2 million euros ($2.3 million) in damages from the Italian government’s fund for Mafia victims.

Giuseppe’s death sent shock waves through Italy for going against the Mafia’s “code of honor” preventing members from killing women and children.

Santino was released early from prison in 2002 for his cooperation in Falcone’s murder, the Guardian reported.

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