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CRIME

Mafia turncoats help police solve 1989 murder

He was tortured, strangled and crushed beneath a tractor but it has taken Italian police 25 years to learn who was responsible for the brutal murder of Paolo Letizia.

Published: 7 October 2014 14:39 CEST
Mafia turncoats help police solve 1989 murder
Italian police say they have solved a murder case dating back to 1989. Photo: Shutterstock

In an apparent conclusion to this gruesome ‘cold case’, police on Tuesday accused five men – including a cousin of one of the most feared Camorra bosses Francesco Schiavone – of Letizia’s murder in 1989.

Letizia was kidnapped from his home in Villa di Briano near Caserta outside Naples on September 19th 1989 and he is believed to have been killed as part of a brutal feud. His body has never been found.

Francesco Schiavone, cousin of the former leader of the notorious Casalesi clan with the same name. and Walter Schiavone were among the three who ordered the killing, police have alleged.

Two others – Giuseppe Russo and Salvatore Cantiello – have been accused by prosecutors of carrying out the murder. All five men are in prison for other crimes.

Police said the crime had been solved with the aid of mafia turncoats who had collaborated with police and anti-mafia investigators.

Francesco Della Corte, a friend of the victim, told prosecutors that Letizia had been tortured and then run over by a tractor as the Casalesi clan carried out a campaign of violent elimination.

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POLITICS

Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

The president of Italy's northwest Liguria region and the ex-head of Genoa's port were among 10 arrested on Tuesday in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation which also targeted officials for alleged mafia ties.

Published: 7 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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