'Sandokan' returns to 41 bis, statements worthless

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 3 - Historic Camorra boss Francesco 'Sandokan' Schiavone, nicknamed after the TV version of the Emilio Salgari exotic adventurer, on Wednesday returned to the tough mafia prison regime dubbed 41 bis after prosecutors deemed the information he had supplied since appearing to turn state's evidence a few months ago as worthless.
    The Naples Public Prosecutor's Office said it "has decided to interrupt the cooperation process initiated a few months ago by former Casalesi clan leader Francesco 'Sandokan' Schiavone," whose death threats forced anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviani into round the clock police protection.
    The investigators said they had decided to revoke the protection programme to which he had been subjected, "believing that the statements made so far by Schiavone were not useful." Nicknamed 'Sandokan' after the fictional action hero played on TV by Kabir Bedi as theTiger of Malaysia, the undisputed leader of the Neapolitan Casalesi clan reportedly decided to cooperate with Naples prosecutors at the end of March after 26 years in jail under the tough 41-bis prison regime.
    The decision by the notorious mobster, who earned his tag due to an alleged resemblance to Indian actor Bedi, was confirmed by the National Anti-Mafia Directorate (DNA).
    Police also went to to the clan's base in Casal di Principe near Caserta north of Naples to invite Schiavone's relatives, including his son Ivanhoe, to enter the protection programme.
    Two other sons, Nicola and Walter, decided to turn state's witness respectively in 2018 and 2021, while Emanuele Libero and Carmine remain in prison and Sandokan's wife Giuseppina Nappa is not in Casal di Principe.
    The Casalesi's death threats pushed Saviano into a police protection scheme following the publication of his best-selling exposé of the Camorra in Gomorra in 2006.
    Arrested in 1998 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 in the Spartacus trial against the Casalesi clan, it was hoped that Schiavone could shed light on a number of unresolved mysteries including the 1988 murder of clan founder Antonio Bardellino in Brazil, and on the relationship between the Camorra mafia and the political and business worlds in Italy.
    But Saviano said on March 26 he was skeptical about Schiavone spilling the beans on political-business-mafia links and other long-time riddles. (ANSA).