Italian ex-deputy sentenced in mafia trial
In Italy's biggest mafia trial for decades, a former member of parliament from the ruling Forza Italia party has been sentenced to eleven years in prison. Conservative politician Giancarlo Pittelli was found guilty of working for the criminal organization 'Ndrangheta by a court in the southern Italian city of Lamezia Terme on Monday.
Forza Italia was the party of former head of government Silvio Berlusconi, who died in June. An ex-policeman and a former regional councillor were also sentenced to prison for being in the service of the Mafia.
More than 300 suspected members or helpers of the mafia have had to answer to the judiciary over the past three years. The public prosecutor's office demanded sentences of up to 30 years in prison - a total of more than 4,700 years for all defendants.
Long list of accusations
The reading of the many verdicts took several hours on Monday. The charges ranged from murder and membership of a criminal organization to drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption in state construction contracts.
The 'Ndrangheta from Calabria used to be only number three of the various mafia organizations in Italy, behind the Cosa Nostra from Sicily and the Camorra from Naples. Today, it is by far Italy's most powerful criminal group with connections all over the world. According to experts, the cocaine business in Europe is largely in their hands, including in Germany. Their global turnover is estimated at more than 50 billion euros per year.
The trial, which has been running since January 2021, was based on the testimony of more than 50 different key witnesses who have renounced the 'Ndrangheta. Normally, the "law of silence" applies in the mafia - in other words, no one makes statements. According to experts, the 'Ndrangheta consists of around 150 families. In the 1980s, more than 400 members of the mafia organization Cosa Nostra were already on trial in Sicily.
The sentences handed to Giancarlo Pittelli and other individuals serve as a reminder of the complex processes involved in dismantling the Mafia, specifically the 'Ndrangheta. Despite the Mafia's strict code of silence, over 50 key witnesses have testified against the organization, revealing its involvement in various criminal activities such as drug trafficking and corruption.
Source: www.dpa.com
