Jailed Sicilian mafia 'boss of bosses' Toto Riina did not order the 1984 bombing of an express train near Bologna that killed 16 people and injured hundreds, a Florence appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
Riina, 84, was not in court as presiding judge Ettore Nicotra read out the verdict. He was acquitted for insufficient evidence, judicial sources said.
The blast aboard the crowded train killed 16 and injured nearly 300 people as it travelled from Florence to Bologna on 23 December 1984.
The bomb was placed in a suitcase on a luggage rack in a carriage in the middle of the train and remotely detonated eight kilometres inside an Apennine tunnel near Bologna, hampering rescue operations.
Prosecutors in Florence charged Riina with ordering the massacre after secret case files were declassified and had asked for a life sentence.
Riina is serving life sentences in a high security jail for the murders of over 100 people including two Sicilian judges. He was arrested on 15 January 1993 after 23 years on the run.
