Accused Mafiosi Salvatore Ferranti, who tips the scales at 462 pounds (33 stones), was allowed to go home after spending six months in four Italian prisons. Guards at the first two prisons said they constantly needed to help the 36-year-old Ferranti to get dressed, move about and go to the bathroom.

Guards at other prisons said there was no bed big enough for him, that he could not get through the bathroom door and that they would be at a loss if he had to be taken to a hospital in an emergency.

Ferranti was accused of being a member of the Mafia clan once headed by Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the "boss of bosses", who was arrested last November.

Lawyer Raffaele Bonsignore filed a motion with a court in Palermo to release him under house arrest because he suffered from "grave obesity", calling it "a pathology incompatible with prison".