By Phil Stewart
ROME (Reuters) - When Don Corleone's daughter got marriedin the film "The Godfather", the guests kissed his hand and hedispensed favours because no Sicilian Mafia boss could refuse arequest on his daughter's wedding day.
But when the real thing took place in Corleone, theSicilian hill town made famous by the movie, the Mafia's former"boss of bosses" Salvatore 'Toto' Riina could only read aboutit in newspapers on Thursday from inside prison.
Lucia Riina, his 28-year-old daughter, was married onWednesday and, in the absence of her father, given away by herbrother, Giuseppe.
Besides her father, other members of Lucia's extendedfamily also could not attend, including brother Gianni anduncle Leoluca Bagarella, who were also Mafia bosses and arealso behind bars.
"Our thoughts go to those who could not be here," thegroom, Vincenco Bellomo, told the guests, according to reportsin Italian newspapers.
Giuseppe, who was freed from jail in February after servingtime for Mafia crimes, also thanked their father, whose Mafianickname was "the Beast" because of his ruthlessness.
"You should be paying for the (media) rights," Giuseppejoked to reporters, according to La Repubblica newspaper.
The wedding, which took place in a church in Corleone,enticed the media but shocked Mafia victims.
"Whoever marries them becomes an accomplice," Sonia Alfano,daughter of a Sicilian journalist killed by the Mafia, told LaRepubblica.
"The newlyweds never disassociated themselves from thebarbarous mobsters, but instead thanked them."
Corleone Mayor Antonino Iannazzo was neutral, describingthe couple as "two private citizens" who followed the rules topublicly marry and who should be respected.
Salvatore Riina's arrest in 1993 after nearly a quarter ofa century on the run ended a violent reign which saw a clan warand challenge to authority dramatised by the murders in 1992 ofanti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
(Editing by Philip Pullella and Mary Gabriel)
