(BY Laura Clarke).
A top Camorra mobster, Antonio
Iovine, has started to collaborate with anti-mafia prosecutors
in the southern Campania region, Italian media reported
Thursday.
Iovine, also known as 'o ninno', is considered one of the
four former bosses of the powerful Casalesi clan from Casal di
Principe in the province of Caserta, whose death threats have
forced anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano into 24-hour police
protection.
The others are Francesco Bidognetti, Francesco Schiavone
(aka Sandokan) and Michele Zagaria.
Iovine, 50, is currently serving a life sentence for
multiple murder and other crimes under Italy's tough prison
regime for organised criminals, the so-called article 41-bis,
after being captured in November 2010 following 15 years on the
run.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in
January 2010 along with Bidognetti, Schiavone and Zagaria
following the 12-year so-called Spartacus maxi trial against the
Casalesi clan.
Following his decision to 'repent' Iovine is now expected
to give prosecutors important information about the organisation
and activities of the Casalesi and their relationship with other
Camorra groups and politicians.
Meanwhile, close relatives including Iovine's wife
Enrichetta Avallone and his son Oreste have been transferred to
a secret location outside the province of Caserta for
protection.
Avallone, 45, was returned to liberty in 2011 after serving
three years on extortion charges.
Oreste is in custody after being arrested last October
along with four other alleged members of the Casalesi clan on
suspicion of mafia association, extortion and drug dealing.
"When last December I wrote that Antonio Iovine was
considering turning State witness, I was accused of wishful
thinking," wrote Saviano Thursday in a tweet.
"It has happened," he continued.
Meanwhile Naples Mayor and former magistrate Luigi de
Magistris hailed the development.
"That breaches are being made in Camorra clans and that
there is collaboration with the judiciary are a positive thing,"
De Magistris said.
"The most damaging blows to mafia organisations have been
made thanks also to the collaboration of State witnesses," he
added.
De Magistris was echoed by Interior Minister Angelino
Alfano, leader of the New Centre Right (NDC), a minor partner in
Premier Matteo Renzi's left-right government.
"Sincere acts of repentance assist efforts to fight the
mafia," said Alfano.
"This became clear thanks to the intuition of great
magistrates such as Giovanni Falcone (a Palermo prosecutor
assassinated by the Sicilian Mafia in 1992), and strong blows
have been dealt to the mafia and to the 'ndrangheta", the crime
syndicate in the southern region of Calabria, the minister
added.
"Should the same thing happen for the Camorra, this could
lead to interesting investigation scenarios that might even
result in its defeat," concluded Alfano.
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