The first hearing of a criminal trial
in which anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano is accused of
defaming Premier Giorgia Meloni was taking place in Rome on
Tuesday.
Saviano, the author of the Gomorrah expose, called the leader of
the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party a "bastard" when
talking about the issue of migrants on a TV show in December
2020.
Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation after Meloni, who at
the time was in the opposition, filed a complaint.
Saviano has been in police protection since the publication of
Gomorra in 2006 lifted the lid on the Casalesi clan of
Campania's Camorra mafia.
The book was turned into a 2008 film that won second prize at
Cannes and was the inspiration for a successful Sky TV series.
The Camorra is Italy's third-biggest criminal organisation
behind Calabria's 'Ndrangheta and Sicily's Cosa Nostra.
Press freedom groups have criticised the trial and the fact that
defamation is a criminal offence in Italy.
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