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 after being captured in autumn
2010 following 15 years on the run.
He was handed the definitive sentence in January 2010
following the 12-year so-called Spartacus maxi trial against the
Casalesi clan, in which Bidognetti, Schiavone and Zagaria were
also sentenced to life imprisonment.
"When last December I wrote that Antonio Iovine was
considering turning State witness, I was called a visionary,"
wrote Saviano Thursday in a tweet.
"It has happened," he continued.
Naples Mayor and former magistrate Luigi de Magistris also
hailed the development Thursday.
"It is positive that breaches are being made in Camorra
clans and that there is collaboration with the judiciary," De
Magistris said.
"The most damaging blows to mafia organisations have been
made also thanks to the collaboration ofSstate witnesses," he
said.
Close relatives of Iovine, including his wife Enrichetta
and his son Oreste, have been transferred to a secret location
outside the province of Caserta for protection.
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