Mafia wants author dead
2008-10-14 14:03
Rome - Police in Italy are looking
into reports that the Naples mafia plans to carry out its threat
to kill the author of the best-selling book Gomorra, which has
been made into a hit movie about mafia brutality, by Christmas.
Roberto Saviano, 29, has lived in hiding with 24-hour police
protection for the past two years since the "Camorra", as the
mob in his hometown is known, decided to punish him for the huge
success of his book, which is based on his own investigations.
It has sold 1.2 million copies in Italy and been translated
into 42 languages. Now that it has hit the big screen and is a
candidate for the Oscars, the mafia is even angrier and wants
Saviano and his bodyguards killed as soon as possible.
"We've launched in inquiry to verify the truth behind this
news," Franco Roberto, a co-ordinator of the local anti-mafia
squad for Naples, told Reuters.
Italian papers said the Naples mob's notorious Casalesi clan
- in the news recently over the murder of six Africans, which
sparked riots by other immigrants - had moved the threat into
the "operative" phase and wanted Saviano dead by Christmas.
The source of the tip-off was a "supergrass" related to the
jailed Camorra godfather Francesco Schiavone, aka "Sandokan".
The Camorra has its finger in every pie in Naples and the
surrounding areas, from the protection racket to drugs and even
waste disposal, as Saviano's book documents in great detail.
With his shaved head, dark close-cropped beard, piercing
eyes and black T-shirt, Saviano has become a symbol of the fight
against organised crime for a new generation of Italians.
He marked two years living under escort on Monday, telling a
radio show of his relationship with the policemen who have been
his only company since he was forced to leave his home.
"Many days are terrible," said Saviano, who spends some of
his time boxing with escorts "who sometimes call me 'captain'".
The writer said it was the millions of people who had bought
the book who really worried the mafia.
"It's the readers who have frightened the crime bosses, not
me," said Saviano.
Some politicians urged the Italian public to show their
solidarity with the writer.
"Nobody must touch Saviano!" said the former Cabinet
minister Giovanna Melandri, denouncing the Camorra as "one of
the main cancers blighting our country".