Gomorrah author hails court victory over mafia threats, says shows mafia not invincible
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The internationally renowned anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano has declared that “journalism has been vindicated; words are vindicated – and so am I”, after a landmark judgment in Rome over threats to his life.
Judges ruled on Monday that a courtroom manoeuvre 13 years ago by a Camorra mafia boss and his lawyer constituted a threat to Saviano’s life, and that of a colleague – Rosaria Capacchione, then of the Naples daily Il Mattino – condemning the journalists to live ever since in the shadows, under bodyguard.
“My life does not greatly change,” Saviano told the Observer after the verdict. “I will still need to keep my bodyguard. And of course, the ruling does not give me back those 13 years, forced to live a hidden half-life, constantly vigilant, under guard, for all that time.
“But the ruling does show that the mafia is not invincible, that it cannot threaten journalists without sanction, and that the clans are afraid of the word, of journalism.”
After an oft-delayed 13-year trial, Rome’s criminal court found Francesco Bidognetti, chief enforcer of the Casalesi clan of the Naples region mafia, and his lawyer, Michele Santonastaso, guilty of threatening the journalists’ lives by filing a document into the “Spartacus” maxi-trial. It ended after 12 years in 2010, with 16 Camorra bosses, including Bidognetti, jailed for life.
Photo: Italian author and screenwriter Roberto Saviano. EPA-EFE/ETTORE FERRARI
