Roberto Saviano said he was skeptical
about Francesco 'Sandokan' Schiavone spilling the beans on
political-business-mafia links and other mysteries after the
historical Casalesi clan chief whose death threats put the
Gomorrah writer into a protection scheme said he was turning
state's evidence Friday.
Saviano, whose 2006 Camorra expose' was turned into a film that
won second prize at Cannes in 2008, said "the news of
Schiavone's 'repentance' (turning state's evidence) has been
overwhelming for me.
"He knows half a century of history of the Camorra's power. His
clan was among the very few to have had directly a
representative in government, economy undersecretary Nicola
Cosentino, who is serving time (10 years) for this.
"But we have to see if he really wants to collaborate, because
so far what his wife and children have said (to police) has not
made a great difference.
"The big fear is that he has found a moment of equilibrium,
knowing well that there is not a great fight by the State
against the criminal organizations.
"I mean by that fighting in economic and business terms because
Schiavone made the difference in organised crime history in so
far as he was an entrepreneur as well as a killer.
"Will he really work with the police? Or will he do like
(another Camorra informant) Antonio Iovine who just told things
we already knew? Or will he reveal new possibilities of
knowledge about the Neapolitan Mob?
"Will he help us find the money, where it is hidden, in what
offshore tax havens?
"Will he reveal the links with business and politics?"
Saviano, whose work has also spawned other films and hit TV
series, continued: "Schiavone is not anti-State, never make that
mistake, he is part of the State. The Camorra is part of the
State. There is a part of the State that is allied to them and a
part that combats them. Then there's the wider and more varied
majority, that keeps its distance from both.
"In 26 years of tough jail regime silence ensured that he would
continue to be king. Now certainly he is no longer the boss, and
even if he doesn't tell us much he won't be the boss any longer,
but he may have chosen to talk to get round his life sentence
which stops you getting out even if you have served 30 years.
"After 26 years in jail, either you turn state's evidence or you
die in prison.
"He had decided to die in prison, but something made him change
his mind.
"Perhaps the possibility of saving his family or a very fragile
State that will only need telling some nonsense to in order to
get a free life back?
"Only time and great attention to these dynamics will tell us
that."
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