Reputed Mafia Boss Provenzano Tight-Lipped

ROME - Reputed Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano refused to answer prosecutors' questions Thursday, ending his first official interrogation since his arrest after eight minutes, his lawyer said.Three prosecutors and a police official from Palermo, Sicily, questioned Provenzano in the presence of his lawyer, Franco Marasa. Provenzano responded when asked his name and date and place of birth, then clammed up as soon as prosecutors read him his rights, said Marasa.

"He said 'I intend to avail myself of my right not to answer,'" Marasa said by telephone, quoting his client.

The 73-year-old Provenzano was interrogated at the prison in Terni, central Italy, where he is being kept in an isolation cell.

Prosecutors Giuseppe Pignatone, Marzia Sabelli and Michele Prestipino were traveling Thursday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

Provenzano was captured April 11, more than 40 years after he went into hiding, and is believed to have taken over leadership of the Sicilian Mafia after the 1993 arrest of Salvatore "Toto" Riina.

Riina also did not talk to investigators after he was captured, prosecutors have said.