<\/p>\n
More than 230 convicted in Italy mafia trial | News<\/p>\n
Saverio Razionale and Domenico Bonavota, two local Calabrian mafia leaders, are both given 30-year sentences.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A court in Italy has convicted more than 230 defendants at the end of one of the country\u2019s largest-ever mafia trials, which targeted the \u2018Ndrangheta crime group in its heartland in the southern region of Calabria.<\/p>\n More than 330 suspected mobsters and their alleged associates, including white-collar professionals, had been facing an array of charges, such as extortion, drug trafficking and theft, in a trial that lasted almost three years.<\/p>\n It took judges just one hour and 40 minutes to read their verdict on Monday, Italy\u2019s ANSA news agency reported. The heaviest penalties were handed to Saverio Razionale and Domenico Bonavota, two local Calabrian mafia leaders, both given 30-year sentences.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s ruling means a whole province of Calabria has been liberated from the top brass of the criminal group,\u201d Nicola Gratteri, one of Italy\u2019s best-known magistrates and a former lead prosecutor in the case, told Reuters.<\/p>\n Among those convicted was Giancarlo Pittelli, a lawyer and former politician with the Forza Italia party \u2013 a member of the national ruling coalition \u2013 who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for mafia collusion and passing on information.<\/p>\n Gratteri, who changed jobs two months ago to become chief prosecutor in Naples, said that confirming the connection between the \u2018Ndrangheta and a network of professionals was a pivotal aspect of the verdict.<\/p>\n Giorgio Naselli, a former local police chief, was sentenced to two years and six months.<\/p>\n However, the prosecution did not secure as heavy sentences as it was seeking in a number of cases, and around 100 of those on trial were cleared.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s first-instance ruling can be appealed by both the defence and the prosecution.<\/p>\n The \u2018Ndrangheta is considered by prosecutors to be Italy\u2019s most powerful mafia group, easily eclipsing the more famous Cosa Nostra gang in Sicily, with its influence extending across Europe and beyond.<\/p>\n The trial was held in a converted call centre in the Calabrian city of Lamezia Terme, with metal cages installed for the defendants.<\/p>\n The last time Italy tried hundreds of alleged mafiosi simultaneously was in 1986 in Palermo in a case that represented a turning point in the fight against Cosa Nostra, marking the beginning of the group\u2019s sharp decline.<\/p>\n That Sicilian trial had a huge impact because it targeted numerous mob families.<\/p>\n The Calabrian trial focused primarily on just one group \u2013 the Mancuso clan from the province of Vibo Valentia \u2013 leaving much of the \u2018Ndrangheta\u2019s top brass untouched.<\/p>\n Anna Sergi, a professor of criminology at the University of Essex, said the verdict confirmed the prosecutors\u2019 reading of the \u2018Ndrangheta structure in Vibo Valentia.<\/p>\n \u201cNow it has its own specificity,\u201d she said, underlining that under Italian law such first-instance rulings can be appealed twice before becoming final.<\/p>\n A further 70 defendants from the original trial had been found guilty in November 2021 after opting for a fast-track procedure in return for reductions in their sentences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0635\u062f\u0631<\/a>
\n
\n\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631<\/a><\/p>\n