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[[Image:Vito Roberto Palazzolo.jpg|thumb|Vito Roberto Palazzolo]] |
[[Image:Vito Roberto Palazzolo.jpg|thumb|Vito Roberto Palazzolo]] |
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'''Vito Roberto Palazzolo''' ([[Terrasini]], Italy, July 31, 1947) is an Italian living in [[South Africa]]. Since he moved to South Africa in the mid 1980s he also goes by the name '''Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko'''. He is alleged to be a member of the [[Sicily|Sicilian]] [[Mafia]], an allegation he denies.<ref name=wa140303/> In March 2009, the highest court in Italy confirmed a 2006 nine-year sentence for association with the Mafia.<ref name=ansa170309/> He is alleged to be a Mafia [[treasurer]] linked to [[Bernardo Provenzano]], the Mafia boss arrested in April 2006 in [[Corleone]], Sicily, and his predecessor [[Salvatore Riina]], both serving life sentences in Italian jails.<ref name=ind270406/><ref name=ad0103>{{it icon}} [http://www.antimafiaduemila.com/content/view/5292/ Il boss finanziere della mafia], Antimafia Duemila, N° 28, January 2003</ref> Palazzolo maintains that he is wrongly persecuted by Italian authorities and has suffered from the arbitrary injustice of the Italian State for more than a quarter of a century.<ref name=website>[http://www.vrpalazzolo.com/ Presumed Guilty], Vito Palazzolo's website (accessed September 11, 2010)</ref> |
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'''Wikipedia and documentary evidence on the life and times of Vito Roberto Palazzolo''' |
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==Money launderering accusations== |
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Palazzolo first came to the attention of law enforcement in Italy and the United States in the course of money laundering activities in the [[Pizza Connection Trial|Pizza Connection]] heroin trafficking ring between Sicily and New York.<ref>Powis, Robert E. (1992), [http://books.google.com/books?id=Op7aAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vito+roberto+Palazzolo&dq=%22vito+roberto+Palazzolo&hl=nl&ei=kDtUTZKWK4eEOpGo1coJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&sqi=2&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg The Money Launderers: Lessons from the Drug Wars], Chicago: Probus Pub. Co., ISBN 1-55738-262-X, pp. 16/21/28</ref> Italian and US intelligence officers estimate that Palazzolo helped to launder more than US$1.5 billion in drug money through Switzerland. The money was moved through offshore companies and fronts from 1979 until his arrest in [[Lugano]] (Switzerland) on April 20, 1984, on an international arrest warrant from Italy.<ref name=ad0103/><ref name=mg050299/><ref name=dd070300>[http://www.dispatch.co.za/2000/03/07/southafrica/PALAZZOL.HTM State applies to have Palazzolo bail withdrawn], ''Daily Dispatch'', March 7, 2000{{Dead link|date=February 2011}}</ref> Even though the US authorities had given statements about Palazzolo’s activities, he has never been charged in the USA.{{fact|date=December 2010}} |
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This Wiki page on Vito Roberto Palazzolo (constructed by a man named Don Calo who never met Palazzolo and who's information sources are entirely newspaper articles), is a string of unsubstantiated allegations, inuendo and aspersions. Palazzolo's case is one of considerable injustice and Don Calo, using Wikipedia as his vehicle, merely echoes that. It is hard to understand his motives in defaming Palazzolo. |
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A Swiss court sentenced Palazzolo in September 1985 to a three year prison term for [[money laundering]], after establishing he was in control of some of the accounts where money raised from the heroin sales were deposited.<ref name=rep270985>{{it icon}} [http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1985/09/27/pizza-connection-tre-le-condanne-una-assoluzione.html 'Pizza connection' tre le condanne e una assoluzione], ''La Repubblica'', September 27, 1985</ref><ref name=mg121297>[http://www.mg.co.za/article/1997-12-12-top-cop-backs-mafia-man Top cop backs Mafia man], ''Mail & Guardian'', December 12, 1997</ref><ref name=mg191199>[http://allafrica.com/stories/199911180162.html Palazzolo: The mobster from Burgersdorp], ''Mail & Guardian'', November 19, 1999</ref> The appeal court increased the sentence to five-and-a-half years in April 1986.<ref>{{de icon}} [http://www.apartheid-reparations.ch/documents/Forschung/Chronologie%201988.pdf "Pizza Connection"-Mitglied in Südafrika verhaftet], ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'', February 4, 1988</ref><ref name=spi120586>{{de icon}} [http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=13517828&aref=image036/2006/06/12/cq-sp198602001640167.pdf Schmutzige Wäsche], ''Der Spiegel'', May 12, 1986</ref> In 1993, the Bundesgericht in Bern reduced the sentence to three years and nine months.<ref>{{de icon}} Roth, Jürgen (2004), ''[http://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks:1&q=isbn:3821855886 Ermitteln verboten! Warum die Polizei den Kampf gegen die Kriminalität aufgegeben hat]'', Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn Verlag, ISBN 3-8218-5588-6 |
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, p. 24</ref> |
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By putting his ''original verbeage in Italics'', I will attempt to answer Don Calo's allegations directly. |
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The United States [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) considered him to be one of the top seven in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.<ref name=mg121098>[http://www.mg.co.za/article/1998-10-12-fbi-names-palazzolo-as-cosa-nostra-don FBI names Palazzolo as Cosa Nostra don], ''Mail & Guardian'', October 12, 1998</ref><ref name=dis>[http://www.dispatch.co.za/1998/10/13/southafrica/FBI.HTM Palazzolo top mafioso - FBI], ''Daily Dispatch'', October 13, 1998</ref> However, he is never mentioned as a member of the top echelon of Cosa Nostra in court sentences and academic studies. State witness [[Antonino Giuffrè]] claimed that the Sicilian Mafia's interests in the drug trade in Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the Far East were managed by Palazzolo.<ref name=ind111204>[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mafias-link-to-colombian-cartel-is-revealed-683238.html Mafia's link to Colombian cartel is revealed], ''The Independent'' (London), December 11, 2004</ref><ref name=ad42006/> |
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==Escape to South Africa== |
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While on 36-hour parole from a prison in Switzerland he absconded to South Africa on a false passport – obtained from a fellow inmate at a prison in [[Lugano]], Switzerland – and a holiday visa in December 1986.<ref name=mg191199/><ref name=mg140901>[http://allafrica.com/stories/200109130435.html Charges against Palazzolo dropped], ''Mail & Guardian'', September 14, 2001</ref> Palazzolo travelled to the Eastern Cape, where [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] parliamentarian [[Peet de Pontes]] for [[East London, South Africa|East London]] had organised [[Ciskei]] residence for him. Palazzolo acquired Ciskei citizenship, and a new name: Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko, claiming aristocratic German lineage, born in [[Burgersdorp]]. On the strength of a new passport in this name, he obtained resident status in South Africa – but all files relating to the application are missing.<ref name=mg050299/><ref name=mg191199/> |
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'''Website''' |
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The former Ciskei ambassador plenipotentiary, [[Douw Steyn]], told the [[Harms Commission]] which investigated the so-called "Palazzolo affair" that Ciskei law had been specially amended to accommodate Palazzolo on condition he donate money to the homeland.<ref name=dis151098/> |
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Unable to defend himself in the face of this kind of Media driven speculation, Palazzolo has developed a website where every aspect of his case, including all court documentation and other evidence, can be found ([http://www.vrpalazzolo.com www.vrpalazzolo.com]). |
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After inviting a Home Affairs official to his farm at [[Franschhoek]], Palazzolo was granted a South African residence permit in December 1987. By January 1988, Swiss police had traced him and informed their South African counterparts. The [[South African Police Service|South African Narcotics Bureau]] (Sanab) raided Palazzolo's Franschhoek farm, Terra de Luc, and arrested him - seizing 10 guns and diamonds worth 500,000 Rand together with documents indicating that Palazzolo had invested more than 25 million Rand in businesses in South Africa and Namibia. He was declared an undesirable person in South Africa and returned to Switzerland to complete his jail sentence.<ref name=mg050299/><ref name=mg191199/> |
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'''Vito Roberto Palazzolo''' (Terrasini, July 31, 1947) ''is an Italian living in South Africa. Since he moved to South Africa in the mid 1980s he also goes by the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko.'' ''It has been alleged, among other things, that he is or was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. All of which he denies.[1]'' |
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After being released from jail Palazzolo returned to South Africa in late 1989 to testify against De Pontes, who was convicted in November 1990 for helping Palazzolo obtain South African residence. De Pontes was fined R35,000 after being convicted of charges including fraud, forgery, and bribery, all linked to Palazzolo's stay in South Africa.<ref name=dis151098/> After testifying about his own cooked residence application, Palazzolo stayed in South Africa until late 1991, when he was ordered out of the country by the Department of Home Affairs.<ref name=mg191199/> |
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He assumed these ancestral names in a bid to travel and go unhindered. See teh section below entitled ''Burgersdorp and von Palace Kolbatschenko'' |
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De Pontes maintained he was wrongly convicted – saying former minister of foreign affairs [[Pik Botha]] threatened in 1988 to "destroy him" after a photograph of Palazzolo and Botha together at an NP function was published in a newspaper. De Pontes said among the deals he and Palazzolo worked on was a 1987 sanctions-busting attempt to import submarines and jet fighters for the apartheid regime.<ref name=mg191199b>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=210120 'SA mafia' fears Vito's arrest], ''Mail & Guardian'', November 19, 1999</ref> |
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==Political contacts== |
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In 1992, Palazzolo was reportedly living in a residence in [[Ciskei]] belonging to then-military ruler [[Oupa Gqozo]], but soon he was back in South Africa. The Cabinet, headed by president [[Frederik Willem de Klerk]], approved a new South African residence application in March 1993 although at the time Palazzolo was the subject of an Italian extradition warrant, according to the magazine ''[[Africa Confidential]]''. In September 1993, De Klerk's government issued a passport to Palazzolo.<ref name=mg050299>[http://www.mg.co.za/article/1999-02-05-nats-were-in-bed-with-mafia-boss Nats were in bed with Mafia boss], ''Mail & Guardian'', February 5, 1999</ref><ref>Men of honour, ''Africa Confidential'', 40(3), February 5, 1999</ref> |
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'''Court cases:''' |
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According to some sources Palazzolo allegedly blackmailed former foreign minister [[Pik Botha]] with photographs showing Botha in a compromising position in bed with a black woman. The photographs are said to be in the possession of the [[National Intelligence Agency]] (NIA).<ref name=mg091098>[http://www.mg.co.za/article/1998-10-09-did-palazzolo-blackmail-pik Did Palazzolo blackmail Pik?], ''Mail & Guardian'', October 9, 1998</ref> Botha has said the claim was "absolute rubbish" and threatened a R10 million lawsuit against the ''[[Mail & Guardian]]''.<ref name=dis151098>[http://www.dispatch.co.za/1998/10/15/easterncape/PALA.HTM Dispatch readers first to hear of Palazzolo], ''Daily Dispatch'', October 15, 1998</ref><ref name=mg161098>[http://www.mg.co.za/article/1998-10-16-its-rubbish-pik-botha 'It's rubbish' - Pik Botha], ''Mail & Guardian'', October 16, 1998</ref> |
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''In March 2009, the highest court in Italy confirmed a 2006 nine-year sentence for collusion with the Mafia.[2]'' |
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==Business interests== |
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Palazzolo quickly ingratiated himself with the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] when he arrived in South Africa in 1986 and also successfully wooed many in the [[African National Congress]] (ANC) long before Mandela’s party won the 1994 election, which definitively ended the [[Apartheid]] regime.<ref name=mg030798>[http://www.mg.co.za/article/1998-07-03-mafia-man-free-for-now Mafia man free ... for now], ''Mail & Guardian'', July 3, 1998</ref> Palazzolo established businesses in Southern Africa, ranging from bottled water to diamond prospecting. His interests are represented either through his sons Christian and Pietro, or through the Von Palace Kolbatschenko Trust. The trust, with offices in Cape Town, is affiliated to Palazzolo's Cape International Holdings, registered in the [[British Virgin Islands]].<ref name=mg050299/> |
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Since 1985 there have been a multitude of court cases and sentences for and against him. Notably here Don Calo omits the fact that on 3 December 2010, in regard to the resulting extradition request from Italy, the Cape High Court interdicted the South African police from arresting him, pending further proceedings in that Court. And on 16 December 2010 an Italian Appeal Court in Caltanissetta admitted a review application <ref>[http://www.vrpalazzolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Notificion-that-Appeal-Court-Caltanissetta-accepts-review-application2.pdf Appeal Court Caltanissetta accepts review application2.pdf]</ref> with regard to the Palermo conviction. This is a very rare judicial intervention and a full review before the Court will be heard on 5 May 2011. |
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Among the approximately 20 companies allegedly linked to him are Anglo-Cape Diamonds, Von Palace Cutting Works and La Vie Mineral Waters. One big foreign deal involved taking a 15% stake in a valuable Angolan diamond concession. Since a tax audit on him started in September 1997, he has argued that his only business enterprise in South Africa is the Franschhoek farm, and that he has no other tax liabilities in the country.<ref name=mg050299/> |
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==Heading a Mafia "family" in South Africa== |
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Investigations into Palazzolo restarted in 1995 when police in the Cape received inquiries from Italian police, who were after [[Mariano Tullio Troia]], a Sicilian mafioso wanted for the murder of [[Salvatore Lima]], an associate of former Italian prime minister [[Giulio Andreotti]]. A March 1998 briefing compiled by Western Cape police intelligence said Italian police claimed Troia was being harboured by Sicilian Salvatore Morettino, a naturalised South African citizen living in Houghton. The Italian police also gave information of contact between Palazzolo and a prominent Sicilian mafia boss, [[Giovanni Brusca]], convicted in Italy for the murder of Antimafia prosecutor [[Giovanni Falcone]].<ref name=mg191199/> |
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'''Corleone Mafia:''' |
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The document alleged that Palazzolo was believed to head a Mafia "family" in South Africa. Apart from Troia, Mafia suspects [[Giovanni Bonomo]] and [[Giuseppe Gelardi]] were given refuge by Palazzolo in South Africa and Namibia after they escaped arrest in Italy. Italian police travelled to South Africa, where they confirmed the presence of a number of mafia suspects and "the existence of a well-knit network of corrupted South African officials that protect the Italian fugitives".<ref name=mg050299/><ref name=mg191199/><ref name=cor050798>{{it icon}} [http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1998/luglio/05/impero_sudafricano_per_boss_co_0_9807052303.shtml Un " impero " sudafricano per il boss], Corriere della Sera, July 5, 1998</ref> |
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''He is alleged to be a Mafia treasurer linked to Bernardo Provenzano, the Mafia boss arrested in April 2006 in Corleone, Sicily, and his predecessor Salvatore Riina, both serving life sentences in Italian jails.[3][4]'' |
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==More judicial inquiries== |
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In November 1999, Palazzolo was arrested in connection with fraud and forgery charges relating to his South African citizenship. Home affairs officials discovered that it was issued fraudulently. He was released on a 500,000 rand bail,<ref name=mg140901/> but re-arrested at his Bantry Bay home in Cape Town in March 2000.<ref name=mg060300>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=225390 Palazzolo re-arrested], ''Mail & Guardian'', March 6, 2000</ref> In March 2003, he was acquitted of contravening South African law when applying for citizenship in 1994.<ref name=>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1047642301534B262 Businessman Palazzolo cleared of all charges], SAPA, March 14, 2003</ref> The judge criticised the [[Directorate of Public Prosecutions]] for wasting the court's time with cases they could never win.<ref name=wa140303>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=ct200303142135152241130458 'Palazzolo case wasted the court's time'], ''Weekend Argus'', March 14, 2003</ref> |
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The Corleone are considered to be extremists amongst the Mafia and this rumour, like all others, has never been substantiated. One source was the testimony of a man named [[Antonino Giuffre]], a State witness, who also claimed that Palazzolo managed the Sicilian Mafia's interests in the drug trade in Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the Far East. Guiffre admitted in court that he never met Palazzolo and his "evidence", as evinced by a letter from the Attorney General in Palermo in March of 2005 [http://www.vrpalazzolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Palermo-Court-23rd-March-2005-re-Giuffre7.pdf <ref>[http://www.vrpalazzolo.com/?p=1726 Attorney General in Palermo in March of 2005<nowiki>]</nowiki></ref>.] produced nothing. Neither had he mentioned Palazzolo in his first informative memo (issued within 108 days from when he becomes a State witness) which, by Law, he cannot change or add to. All of which is covered in a memorandum by the advocate Baldassare Lauria on 13th May 2009<ref>[http://www.pdfonline.com/premium/result/ee44f73213ba4231b2b2cb84e655c57d/Memorandum%20Baldassare%20Lauria%20supplement.pdf Supplement to a memorandum by The Advocate Baldassare Lauria on 13th May 2009]</ref>. |
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Investigators also probed Palazzolo's alleged role in money laundering through [[Liechtenstein]] companies and trusts and requested legal assistance from authorities. An international cooperation granted by the regional court in [[Vaduz]] in March 2000 has been ruled invalid. Following an agreement between lawyers for the state and Palazzolo, the [[Cape High Court]] ordered that the state "shall forthwith withdraw the requests for mutual legal assistance to Liechtenstein and Switzerland respectively and also any similar requests made to any other countries since 1999".<ref name=mg140901/> |
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This means investigators cannot access documents, computer data and other information obtained from four companies and trusts based in. The material was seized and sealed after the Vaduz court approved the cooperation request, stating that "for the period from 1986 to present, the South African investigation authorities have managed to trace approximately 90 transactions to a total of approximately R101,5-million". The Vaduz court decision filed in the Cape High Court said there was a "shrewd scheme" to conceal money flows of millions of dollars into the control of Palazzolo. Reference was made to various offshore accounts, including suspected "Cosa Nostra accounts" and several other companies based outside South Africa.<ref name=mg140901/> |
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'''Money launderering accusations''' |
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Palazzolo took [[Andre Lincoln]], former commander of the Presidential Investigation Task Unit (Pitu), to Angola in order to clear his name with the Angolan government.<ref name=mg231097>[http://allafrica.com/stories/199710240026.html Diamond deal probed], ''Mail & Guardian'', October 23, 1997</ref> |
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''Italian and US intelligence officers estimate that Palazzolo helped to launder more than US$1.5 billion in drug money through Switzerland.'' |
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==Convicted in Italy== |
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In 2003 prosecutors from Palermo, Sicily, attempted to have Palazzolo extradited to face charges of Mafia association. Tapes revealed Palazzolo urging his sister Sara to put pressure on [[Marcello Dell'Utri]] to derail attempts to extradite him South Africa, and offering to cut Dell'Utri in on construction deals in Angola. "Don't worry, you don't have to convert him, he's already been converted", Palazzolo said about Dell’Utri – implying that Dell'Utri was a member of the Mafia. Not long afterwards, in April 2004, the extradition request was shelved.<ref name=ind270406>[http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article360409.ece Berlusconi loyalist was 'solid ally of the Mafia' cause], ''The Independent'', April 27, 2006</ref><ref name=sapa230304>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw108005184329B263 Mafia cops can't go after Palazzolo – yet], Sapa, March 23 2004</ref> |
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Which is an interesting extrapolation of the figure for which he was sentenced, in ''Dolus Eventualis'' (a vague legal definition pitched somewhere between intent and negligence), which was [http://www.vrpalazzolo.com/?attachment_id=2273 $6m]. |
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On July 5, 2006, Palazzolo was sentenced to nine years in prison for aiding and abetting Cosa Nostra.<ref name=rep060706>{{it icon}} [http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2006/07/06/nove-anni-vito-palazzolo-era-il-finanziere.html Nove anni a Vito Palazzolo era il finanziere di Cosa nostra], ''La Repubblica'', July 6, 2006</ref> (In 1992 an Italian court had acquitted him of Mafia association, which made a conviction on this charge improbable) Italy asked for Palazzolo to be extradited but the South-African justice department said it would only begin processing the extradition request once his appeal against that conviction was finalised.<ref name=arg300908>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080930123506697C943371 Have the Mafia moved to SA?], ''Cape Argus'', September 30, 2008</ref> |
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The highest court in Italy confirmed the nine-year sentence for collusion with the Mafia in March 2009.<ref name=ansa170309>{{it icon}} [http://www.antimafiaduemila.com/content/view/13944/48/ Confermata condanna per mafia a boss Palazzolo], ANSA, March 17, 2009</ref> According to several [[pentito|pentiti]] (collaborating state witnesses) such as [[Francesco Di Carlo]], [[Salvatore Cancemi]], [[Giovanni Brusca]] and [[Antonino Giuffrè]], Palazzolo is a member of [[Cosa Nostra]] made in the Mafia family of [[Partinico]].<ref name=ad42006>{{it icon}} [http://www.antimafiaduemila.com/content/view/3536/ Concorso esterno. Ma l’imputato è mafioso], Antimafia Duemila, Anno VI Numero 4 - 2006 N°50</ref> His lawyer Roberto Tricoli will be denouncing the Italian Government at the European Court of Human Rights for the violations that have been committed with regards to Palazzolo; this application will be presented within six months from the date of the judgement.<ref name=defence>{{it icon}} [http://palermo.repubblica.it/dettaglio/il-tesoriere-di-riina-si-iscrive-a-facebook/1660875 Il tesoriere di Riina si iscrive a Facebook], ''La Repubblica'' (Edition Palermo), June 25, 2009</ref> |
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'''Swiss sentences''' |
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== Palazzolo's denials== |
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Palazzolo has always denied that he is involved in organised crime, has any links to the Mafia, nor enjoys close relations with politicians in the government. In 1992, a court in Rome had found him not guilty of being a member of the Mafia. "I was acquitted of Mafia charges, but I am always the 'alleged Mafia don' and it is disturbing to be portrayed that way to family and friends," Palazzolo maintains.<ref name=wa140303/> He hired a public relations adviser, [[Aldo Sarullo]], a former actor, playwright and director, who advised Palermo's Antimafia mayor, [[Leoluca Orlando]], and later [[Silvio Berlusconi]]'s party [[Forza Italia]], to change his image as Mafia boss.<ref name=gua300604>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1250217,00.html Alleged mafia don hires image consultant], ''The Guardian'', June 30, 2004</ref> |
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''A Swiss court sentenced Palazzolo in September 1985 to a three year prison term for [[money laundering]], after establishing he was in control of some of the accounts where money raised from the heroin sales were deposited.<ref name=rep270985>{{it icon}} [http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1985/09/27/pizza-connection-tre-le-condanne-una-assoluzione.html 'Pizza connection' tre le condanne e una assoluzione], ''La Repubblica'', September 27, 1985</ref><ref name=mg121297>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=177328 Top cop backs Mafia man], ''Mail & Guardian'', December 12, 1997</ref><ref name=mg191199>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=159803 Palazzolo: The mobster from Burgersdorp], ''Mail & Guardian'', November 19, 1999</ref> The appeal court increased the sentence to five-and-a-half years in April 1986.<ref>{{de icon}} [http://www.apartheid-reparations.ch/documents/Forschung/Chronologie%201988.pdf "Pizza Connection"-Mitglied in Südafrika verhaftet], ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'', February 4, 1988</ref><ref name=spi120586>{{de icon}} [http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=13517828&aref=image036/2006/06/12/cq-sp198602001640167.pdf Schmutzige Wäsche], ''Der Spiegel'', May 12, 1986</ref>'' |
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In an interview with the Italian news agency [[Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata|ANSA]] in July 2009 he denied to be the so-called treasurer for former Cosa Nostra bosses Riina and Provenzano. He said that "for me it is a great dishonour to be considered the treasurer of Riina and Provenzano, two of the biggest criminals Italy has known. It is shameful to be accused of managing the wealth of these two men, whom I have never met. Perhaps others are proud of being associated with them, like state's witnesses, but not me." He challenged "the Italian police or any police, even the secret service, to produce one single transaction I am alleged to have carried out on behalf of Provenzano or Riina." Palazzolo claims he had been "persecuted" by Italian magistrates based on testimony given by crime figures who had turned state's witnesses.<ref name=ansa010709>[http://www.lifeinitaly.com/node/6455 Fugitive Refutes Mafia Ties], ANSA, July 1, 2009</ref> |
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It was the same court (Cassation and Criminal Review) on the 5th November 1993, that amended their previous judgement, convicting him instead to 3 years and 9 months imprisonment. |
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==Extradition denied== |
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In January 2007 the Italian government requested the extradition of Palazzolo after the nine-year sentence was handed down by the Italian court for collusion with the Mafia. This was the sixth request from the Italians since 1992.<ref name=ct190510>[http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5476066 Department of Justice accused of bias against Palazzolo], The Cape Times, May 19, 2010</ref><ref name=bur150610>{{af icon}} [http://www.dieburger.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Palazzolo-wen-stryd-teen-uitlewering-20100614 Palazzolo wen stryd teen uitlewering], Die Burger, June 15, 2010</ref> In June 2010, the High Court of South Africa blocked the extradition of Palazzolo due to lack of double criminality requirement as South Africa does not recognize the crime of Mafia association as conceived in Italy. Moreover, the Court also found double jeopardy as Palazzolo had already been acquitted of Mafia association in 1992 by a court in Rome. For the Italian authorities Palazzolo remains a fugitive from justice.<ref name=bur150610/><ref name=rep190610>{{it icon}} [http://palermo.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/06/19/news/il_sudafrica_nega_l_estradizione_di_palazzolo_il_tesoriere_di_riina_e_provenzano_resta_latitante-4971519/ Il Sudafrica nega l'estradizione di Palazzolo], La Repubblica, June 19, 2010</ref> |
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In September 2010, Palazzolo opened a website to counter the allegations against him. He maintains that he is wrongly persecuted by the Italian judicial authorities. According to Palazzolo he is the victim of "a politically-charged vendetta that has been waged against me by lawyers, crusading politicians, journalists and opportunists who have climbed onto the bandwagon. It is based on a scourge of hearsay, aspersions, half truths, legal twists, inventions and total fabrications. The rule of law has been subverted for the principle of 'success' in the war against crime. Justice has become about newspaper headlines. The political careers of the leading lights in this war have taken on a life of their own, overriding any legal obstacles in securing a conviction against me. I was scooped up in their nets and dished up to the media as proof of their success in the fight against organised crime."<ref name=website/> |
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'''The United States''' |
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''The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) considered him to be one of the top seven in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.<ref name=mg121098>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=213973 FBI names Palazzolo as Cosa Nostra don], ''Mail & Guardian'', October 12, 1998</ref><ref name=dis>[http://www.dispatch.co.za/1998/10/13/southafrica/FBI.HTM Palazzolo top mafioso - FBI], ''Daily Dispatch'', October 13, 1998</ref>.'' |
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What Don Calo omits is that this rumour originated from a speaker at the US Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, and was immediately refuted by Louis Freeh, no less, the Director General of the FBI. |
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'''Escape to South Africa''' |
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''While on 36-hour parole from a prison in Switzerland he absconded to South Africa on a false passport – obtained from a fellow inmate at a prison in [[Lugano]], Switzerland – and a holiday visa in December 1986.<ref name=mg191199/><ref name=mg140901>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=218116 Charges against Palazzolo dropped], ''Mail & Guardian'', September 14, 2001</ref>'' |
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In point of fact Palazzolo was at semi-liberty in Switzerland at the time and was awaiting the result of his review application, which in any case he won when he returned to Switzerland, voluntarity, in February 1988. Had he "absconded", as Don Calo states, he would have been charged accordingly, but never was. |
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'''Burgersdorp and von Palace Kolbatschenko''' |
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''Palazzolo travelled to the Eastern Cape, where [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] parliamentarian [[Peet de Pontes]] for [[East London, South Africa|East London]] had organised [[Ciskei]] residence for him. Palazzolo acquired Ciskei citizenship, and a new name: Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko, claiming aristocratic German lineage, born in [[Burgersdorp]].'' |
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Palazzolo has aristocratic Norman Sicilian lineage and his great Grandmother, Princess Kolbatschenko, was in fact German. Hence the name. As to the Burgersdorp claim, when they put in his place of birth the computer in Ciskei wasn't formatted for foreign place names and put in Burgersdorp by mistake. Which was later rectified but by the then the Press had got hold of it and so by default, Don Calo. |
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'''Peet De Pontes''' |
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''On the strength of a new passport in this name, he obtained resident status in South Africa – but all files relating to the application are missing.<ref name=mg050299/><ref name=mg191199/>'' |
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The answer to this is that Peets de Pontes was convicted and fined R35,000 because, amongst many other things (including attempted theft from Palazzolo), he got rid of the files. |
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''De Pontes maintained he was wrongly convicted – saying former minister of foreign affairs [[Pik Botha]] threatened in 1988 to "destroy him" after a photograph of Palazzolo and Botha together at an NP function was published in a newspaper. De Pontes said among the deals he and Palazzolo worked on was a 1987 sanctions-busting attempt to import submarines and jet fighters for the apartheid regime.<ref name=mg191199b>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=210120 'SA mafia' fears Vito's arrest], ''Mail & Guardian'', November 19, 1999</ref>'' |
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One wonders why, given the credibility of Don Calo's sources, De Pontes and he didn't include atom bombs in their arsenal for the apartheid regime? |
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'''Guns and diamonds''' |
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''After inviting a Home Affairs official to his farm at [[Franschhoek]], Palazzolo was granted a South African residence permit in December 1987. By January 1988, Swiss police had traced him and informed their South African counterparts. The [[South African Police Service|South African Narcotics Bureau]] (Sanab) raided Palazzolo's Franschhoek farm, Terra de Luc, and arrested him - seizing 10 guns and diamonds worth 500,000 Rand together with documents indicating that Palazzolo had invested more than 25 million Rand in businesses in South Africa and Namibia. He was declared an undesirable person in South Africa and returned to Switzerland to complete his jail sentence.<ref name=mg050299/><ref name=mg191199/>'' |
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The diamonds and guns were returned because they were fully documented and legal. There is nothing than can be inferred from this. He was never declared an undesirable person. He returned to Switzerland of his own volition. |
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'''Political contacts''' |
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''In 1992, Palazzolo was reportedly living in a residence in [[Ciskei]] belonging to then-military ruler [[Oupa Gqozo]], but soon he was back in South Africa. The Cabinet, headed by president [[Frederik Willem de Klerk]], approved a new South African residence application in March 1993 although at the time Palazzolo was the subject of an Italian extradition warrant, according to the magazine ''[[Africa Confidential]]''. In September 1993, De Klerk's government issued a passport to Palazzolo.<ref name=mg050299>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=162333 Nats were in bed with Mafia boss], ''Mail & Guardian'', February 5, 1999</ref><ref>Men of honour, ''Africa Confidential'', 40(3), February 5, 1999</ref>'' |
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The extradition request had been refused because it dealt with the same facts (Double Jeopardy) that had been laid to rest, already, in Switzerland. And it was Mr. Mandela who gave him citizenship in 1994, not De Klerk in 1993. |
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'''Blackmail''' |
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''According to some sources Palazzolo allegedly blackmailed former foreign minister [[Pik Botha]] with photographs showing Botha in a compromising position in bed with a black woman. The photographs are said to be in the possession of the [[National Intelligence Agency]] (NIA).<ref name=mg091098>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=181013 Did Palazzolo blackmail Pik?], ''Mail & Guardian'', October 9, 1998</ref> Botha has said the claim was "absolute rubbish" and threatened a R10 million lawsuit against the ''[[Mail & Guardian]]''.<ref name=dis151098>[http://www.dispatch.co.za/1998/10/15/easterncape/PALA.HTM Dispatch readers first to hear of Palazzolo], ''Daily Dispatch'', October 15, 1998</ref><ref name=mg161098>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=208283 'It's rubbish' - Pik Botha], ''Mail & Guardian'', October 16, 1998</ref>'' |
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When considering the depths of speculation that Don Calo plumbs when he writes this paragraph, Pik Botha's words, "absolute rubbish" and his "R10m lawsuit", look entirely appropriate. |
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'''Business interests''' |
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''Palazzolo quickly ingratiated himself with the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] when he arrived in South Africa in 1986 and also successfully wooed many in the [[African National Congress]] (ANC) long before Mandela’s party won the 1994 election, which definitively ended the [[Apartheid]] regime.<ref name=mg030798>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=182007 Mafia man free ... for now], ''Mail & Guardian'', July 3, 1998</ref> Palazzolo established businesses in Southern Africa, ranging from bottled water to diamond prospecting. His interests are represented either through his sons Christian and Pietro, or through the Von Palace Kolbatschenko Trust. The trust, with offices in Cape Town, is affiliated to Palazzolo's Cape International Holdings, registered in the [[British Virgin Islands]].<ref name=mg050299/>'' |
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Palazzolo administers his businesses directly himself, and the VPK Trust is a family Trust. |
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''Among the approximately 20 companies allegedly linked to him are Anglo-Cape Diamonds, Von Palace Cutting Works and La Vie Mineral Waters. One big foreign deal involved taking a 15% stake in a valuable Angolan diamond concession. Since a tax audit on him started in September 1997, he has argued that his only business enterprise in South Africa is the Franschhoek farm, and that he has no other tax liabilities in the country.<ref name=mg050299/>'' |
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Palazzolo has acted and still acts for more than 20 companies worldwide; he is a financial consultant to various mining enterprises and sometimes if the client is short of funds, he accepts some participation in form of shares or equity in projects. |
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'''Heading a Mafia "family" in South Africa''' |
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''Investigations into Palazzolo restarted in 1995 when police in the Cape received inquiries from Italian police, who were after [[Mariano Tullio Troia]], a Sicilian mafioso wanted for the murder of [[Salvatore Lima]], an associate of former Italian prime minister [[Giulio Andreotti]]. A March 1998 briefing compiled by Western Cape police intelligence said Italian police claimed Troia was being harboured by Sicilian Salvatore Morettino, a naturalised South African citizen living in Houghton. The Italian police also gave information of contact between Palazzolo and a prominent Sicilian mafia boss, [[Giovanni Brusca]], convicted in Italy for the murder of Antimafia prosecutor [[Giovanni Falcone]].<ref name=mg191199/> The document alleged that Palazzolo was believed to head a Mafia "family" in South Africa. Apart from Troia, Mafia suspects [[Giovanni Bonomo]] and [[Giuseppe Gelardi]] were given refuge by Palazzolo in South Africa and Namibia after they escaped arrest in Italy. Italian police travelled to South Africa, where they confirmed the presence of a number of mafia suspects and "the existence of a well-knit network of corrupted South African officials that protect the Italian fugitives".<ref name=mg050299/><ref name=mg191199/>'' |
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The above lies came from the PITU (presidential Investigation Task). Bonomo & Gelardi were not fugitives from Italian Justice when they tavelled to SA. Troia is the cousin of Dr. Morettino and, since he the day he got married in Johannesburg, has never set foot in South Africa. When he was arrested in Palermo they found a baby born of the woman who had hosted him since becoming a fugitive. It was unlikely that he had the time or the opportunity to have slipped away into hiding, meanwhile, in South Africa. All of these were fabrications by police officials in South Africa who cashed in on the story, paid out by the Italian State Police. The absurdity of which was illustrated when the police raided a house where Troia was supposed to be hiding, where they found instead a law abiding, ordinary South African citizen, who reported them to the Police! The Italian Police were thoroughly embarrassed by this and were ordered by tbe Attorney General in Palermo to fly back to Italy immediately. |
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'''More judicial inquiries''' |
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''In November 1999, Palazzolo was arrested in connection with fraud and forgery charges relating to his South African citizenship. Home affairs officials discovered that it was issued fraudulently. He was released on a 500,000 rand bail,<ref name=mg140901/> but re-arrested at his Bantry Bay home in Cape Town in March 2000.<ref name=mg060300>[http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=225390 Palazzolo re-arrested], ''Mail & Guardian'', March 6, 2000</ref> In March 2003, he was acquitted of contravening South African law when applying for citizenship in 1994.<ref name=>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1047642301534B262 Businessman Palazzolo cleared of all charges], SAPA, March 14, 2003</ref> The judge criticised the [[Directorate of Public Prosecutions]] for wasting the court's time with cases they could never win.<ref name=wa140303>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=ct200303142135152241130458 'Palazzolo case wasted the court's time'], ''Weekend Argus'', March 14, 2003</ref>'' |
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The High Court rebuked the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for bringing this case in the first place, told them to withdraw it and to apologise to Palazzolo. |
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''Investigators also probed Palazzolo's alleged role in money laundering through [[Liechtenstein]] companies and trusts and requested legal assistance from authorities. An international cooperation granted by the regional court in [[Vaduz]] in March 2000 has been ruled invalid. Following an agreement between lawyers for the state and Palazzolo, the [[Cape High Court]] ordered that the state "shall forthwith withdraw the requests for mutual legal assistance to Liechtenstein and Switzerland respectively and also any similar requests made to any other countries since 1999".<ref name=mg140901/> This means investigators cannot access documents, computer data and other information obtained from four companies and trusts based in. The material was seized and sealed after the Vaduz court approved the cooperation request, stating that "for the period from 1986 to present, the South African investigation authorities have managed to trace approximately 90 transactions to a total of approximately R101,5-million". The Vaduz court decision filed in the Cape High Court said there was a "shrewd scheme" to conceal money flows of millions of dollars into the control of Palazzolo. Reference was made to various offshore accounts, including suspected "Cosa Nostra accounts" and several other companies based outside South Africa.<ref name=mg140901/>'' |
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It is hard to know what Don Calo is alluding to, suffice it to say that Palazzolo's money was released by the Attorney General of Switzerland and declared in writing that the money was clean and did not originate from any crime. |
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'''Convicted in Italy''' |
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This section has been covered in '''Court Cases''' above, which list the latest, relevant cases. There is no space to list all his cases which are very complex and long winded so to mention just a few aspects (like Pentiti or State Witnesses, as Don Calo does) is a misrepresentation of Palazzolo's case. |
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'''Palazzolo's denials''' |
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''Palazzolo has always denied that he is involved in organised crime, has any links to the Mafia, nor enjoys close relations with politicians in the government. In 1992, a court in Rome had found him not guilty of being a member of the Mafia. "I was acquitted of Mafia charges, but I am always the 'alleged Mafia don' and it is disturbing to be portrayed that way to family and friends," Palazzolo maintains.<ref name=wa140303/>'' |
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'''Public relations adviser?''' |
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''He hired a public relations adviser, [[Aldo Sarullo]], a former actor, playwright and director, who advised Palermo's Antimafia mayor, [[Leoluca Orlando]], and later [[Silvio Berlusconi]]'s party [[Forza Italia]], to change his image as Mafia boss.<ref name=gua300604>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1250217,00.html Alleged mafia don hires image consultant], ''The Guardian'', June 30, 2004</ref>'' |
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Palazzolo did not hire Aldo Sarullo, nor ever considered hiring him. |
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'''Denials''' |
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''In an interview with the Italian news agency [[Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata|ANSA]] in July 2009 he denied to be the so-called treasurer for former Cosa Nostra bosses Riina and Provenzano. He said that "for me it is a great dishonour to be considered the treasurer of Riina and Provenzano, two of the biggest criminals Italy has known. It is shameful to be accused of managing the wealth of these two men, whom I have never met. Perhaps others are proud of being associated with them, like state's witnesses, but not me." He challenged "the Italian police or any police, even the secret service, to produce one single transaction I am alleged to have carried out on behalf of Provenzano or Riina." Palazzolo claims he had been "persecuted" by Italian magistrates based on testimony given by crime figures who had turned state's witnesses.<ref name=ansa010709>[http://www.lifeinitaly.com/node/6455 Fugitive Refutes Mafia Ties], ANSA, July 1, 2009</ref>'' |
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'''Extradition denied''' |
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''In January 2007 the Italian government requested the extradition of Palazzolo after the nine-year sentence was handed down by the Italian court for collusion with the Mafia. This was the sixth request from the Italians since 1992.<ref name=ct190510>[http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5476066 Department of Justice accused of bias against Palazzolo], The Cape Times, May 19, 2010</ref><ref name=bur150610>{{af icon}} [http://www.dieburger.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Palazzolo-wen-stryd-teen-uitlewering-20100614 Palazzolo wen stryd teen uitlewering], Die Burger, June 15, 2010</ref> In June 2010, the High Court of South Africa blocked the extradition of Palazzolo due to lack of double criminality requirement as South Africa does not recognize the crime of Mafia association as conceived in Italy. Moreover, the Court also found double jeopardy as Palazzolo had already been acquitted of Mafia association in 1992 by a court in Rome. For the Italian authorities Palazzolo remains a fugitive from justice.<ref name=bur150610/><ref name=rep190610>{{it icon}} [http://palermo.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/06/19/news/il_sudafrica_nega_l_estradizione_di_palazzolo_il_tesoriere_di_riina_e_provenzano_resta_latitante-4971519/ Il Sudafrica nega l'estradizione di Palazzolo], La Repubblica, June 19, 2010</ref>'' |
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This paragraph is largely illiterate. What Don Calo means is that the High Court of South Africa denied Palazzolo's extradition because of the principle of [[Double Jeopardy]], which is the principle that no man or woman can be tried twice for the same crime. Ergo, Palazzolo had already been tried in Switzerland in 1985, for the same facts. Likewise, his acquittal in Rome in 1992. |
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'''Palazzolo Website''' |
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''In September 2010, Palazzolo opened a website to counter the allegations against him. He maintains that he is wrongly persecuted by the Italian judicial authorities. According to Palazzolo he is the victim of "a politically-charged vendetta that has been waged against me by lawyers, crusading politicians, journalists and opportunists who have climbed onto the bandwagon. It is based on a scourge of hearsay, aspersions, half truths, legal twists, inventions and total fabrications. The rule of law has been subverted for the principle of 'success' in the war against crime. Justice has become about newspaper headlines. The political careers of the leading lights in this war have taken on a life of their own, overriding any legal obstacles in securing a conviction against me. I was scooped up in their nets and dished up to the media as proof of their success in the fight against organised crime."<ref name=website/>'' |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{reflist|2}} |
{{reflist|2}} |
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*{{de icon}} Roth, Jürgen (2004), ''[http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xinos.net%2Fapp%2Fdownload%2F1378758512%2FRoth%2C%2BJ%25C3%25BCrgen%2B-%2BErmitteln%2BVerboten.pdf&ei=exP8SYHIEMq4-Qb17ZmrAg&usg=AFQjCNF4Uro3St9f-2s9FT6yOe3vWrFOqA Ermitteln verboten! Warum die Polizei den Kampf gegen die Kriminalität aufgegeben hat]'', Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn Verlag, ISBN 3-8218-5588-6 |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
Revision as of 09:24, 13 February 2011
Wikipedia and documentary evidence on the life and times of Vito Roberto Palazzolo
This Wiki page on Vito Roberto Palazzolo (constructed by a man named Don Calo who never met Palazzolo and who's information sources are entirely newspaper articles), is a string of unsubstantiated allegations, inuendo and aspersions. Palazzolo's case is one of considerable injustice and Don Calo, using Wikipedia as his vehicle, merely echoes that. It is hard to understand his motives in defaming Palazzolo.
By putting his original verbeage in Italics, I will attempt to answer Don Calo's allegations directly.
Website
Unable to defend himself in the face of this kind of Media driven speculation, Palazzolo has developed a website where every aspect of his case, including all court documentation and other evidence, can be found (www.vrpalazzolo.com).
Vito Roberto Palazzolo (Terrasini, July 31, 1947) is an Italian living in South Africa. Since he moved to South Africa in the mid 1980s he also goes by the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko. It has been alleged, among other things, that he is or was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. All of which he denies.[1]
He assumed these ancestral names in a bid to travel and go unhindered. See teh section below entitled Burgersdorp and von Palace Kolbatschenko
Court cases:
In March 2009, the highest court in Italy confirmed a 2006 nine-year sentence for collusion with the Mafia.[2]
Since 1985 there have been a multitude of court cases and sentences for and against him. Notably here Don Calo omits the fact that on 3 December 2010, in regard to the resulting extradition request from Italy, the Cape High Court interdicted the South African police from arresting him, pending further proceedings in that Court. And on 16 December 2010 an Italian Appeal Court in Caltanissetta admitted a review application [1] with regard to the Palermo conviction. This is a very rare judicial intervention and a full review before the Court will be heard on 5 May 2011.
Corleone Mafia:
He is alleged to be a Mafia treasurer linked to Bernardo Provenzano, the Mafia boss arrested in April 2006 in Corleone, Sicily, and his predecessor Salvatore Riina, both serving life sentences in Italian jails.[3][4]
The Corleone are considered to be extremists amongst the Mafia and this rumour, like all others, has never been substantiated. One source was the testimony of a man named Antonino Giuffre, a State witness, who also claimed that Palazzolo managed the Sicilian Mafia's interests in the drug trade in Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the Far East. Guiffre admitted in court that he never met Palazzolo and his "evidence", as evinced by a letter from the Attorney General in Palermo in March of 2005 [2]. produced nothing. Neither had he mentioned Palazzolo in his first informative memo (issued within 108 days from when he becomes a State witness) which, by Law, he cannot change or add to. All of which is covered in a memorandum by the advocate Baldassare Lauria on 13th May 2009[3].
Money launderering accusations
Italian and US intelligence officers estimate that Palazzolo helped to launder more than US$1.5 billion in drug money through Switzerland.
Which is an interesting extrapolation of the figure for which he was sentenced, in Dolus Eventualis (a vague legal definition pitched somewhere between intent and negligence), which was $6m.
Swiss sentences
A Swiss court sentenced Palazzolo in September 1985 to a three year prison term for money laundering, after establishing he was in control of some of the accounts where money raised from the heroin sales were deposited.[4][5][6] The appeal court increased the sentence to five-and-a-half years in April 1986.[7][8]
It was the same court (Cassation and Criminal Review) on the 5th November 1993, that amended their previous judgement, convicting him instead to 3 years and 9 months imprisonment.
The United States
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considered him to be one of the top seven in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.[9][10].
What Don Calo omits is that this rumour originated from a speaker at the US Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, and was immediately refuted by Louis Freeh, no less, the Director General of the FBI.
Escape to South Africa
While on 36-hour parole from a prison in Switzerland he absconded to South Africa on a false passport – obtained from a fellow inmate at a prison in Lugano, Switzerland – and a holiday visa in December 1986.[6][11]
In point of fact Palazzolo was at semi-liberty in Switzerland at the time and was awaiting the result of his review application, which in any case he won when he returned to Switzerland, voluntarity, in February 1988. Had he "absconded", as Don Calo states, he would have been charged accordingly, but never was.
Burgersdorp and von Palace Kolbatschenko
Palazzolo travelled to the Eastern Cape, where National Party parliamentarian Peet de Pontes for East London had organised Ciskei residence for him. Palazzolo acquired Ciskei citizenship, and a new name: Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko, claiming aristocratic German lineage, born in Burgersdorp.
Palazzolo has aristocratic Norman Sicilian lineage and his great Grandmother, Princess Kolbatschenko, was in fact German. Hence the name. As to the Burgersdorp claim, when they put in his place of birth the computer in Ciskei wasn't formatted for foreign place names and put in Burgersdorp by mistake. Which was later rectified but by the then the Press had got hold of it and so by default, Don Calo.
Peet De Pontes
On the strength of a new passport in this name, he obtained resident status in South Africa – but all files relating to the application are missing.[12][6]
The answer to this is that Peets de Pontes was convicted and fined R35,000 because, amongst many other things (including attempted theft from Palazzolo), he got rid of the files.
De Pontes maintained he was wrongly convicted – saying former minister of foreign affairs Pik Botha threatened in 1988 to "destroy him" after a photograph of Palazzolo and Botha together at an NP function was published in a newspaper. De Pontes said among the deals he and Palazzolo worked on was a 1987 sanctions-busting attempt to import submarines and jet fighters for the apartheid regime.[13]
One wonders why, given the credibility of Don Calo's sources, De Pontes and he didn't include atom bombs in their arsenal for the apartheid regime?
Guns and diamonds
After inviting a Home Affairs official to his farm at Franschhoek, Palazzolo was granted a South African residence permit in December 1987. By January 1988, Swiss police had traced him and informed their South African counterparts. The South African Narcotics Bureau (Sanab) raided Palazzolo's Franschhoek farm, Terra de Luc, and arrested him - seizing 10 guns and diamonds worth 500,000 Rand together with documents indicating that Palazzolo had invested more than 25 million Rand in businesses in South Africa and Namibia. He was declared an undesirable person in South Africa and returned to Switzerland to complete his jail sentence.[12][6]
The diamonds and guns were returned because they were fully documented and legal. There is nothing than can be inferred from this. He was never declared an undesirable person. He returned to Switzerland of his own volition.
Political contacts
In 1992, Palazzolo was reportedly living in a residence in Ciskei belonging to then-military ruler Oupa Gqozo, but soon he was back in South Africa. The Cabinet, headed by president Frederik Willem de Klerk, approved a new South African residence application in March 1993 although at the time Palazzolo was the subject of an Italian extradition warrant, according to the magazine Africa Confidential. In September 1993, De Klerk's government issued a passport to Palazzolo.[12][14]
The extradition request had been refused because it dealt with the same facts (Double Jeopardy) that had been laid to rest, already, in Switzerland. And it was Mr. Mandela who gave him citizenship in 1994, not De Klerk in 1993.
Blackmail
According to some sources Palazzolo allegedly blackmailed former foreign minister Pik Botha with photographs showing Botha in a compromising position in bed with a black woman. The photographs are said to be in the possession of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).[15] Botha has said the claim was "absolute rubbish" and threatened a R10 million lawsuit against the Mail & Guardian.[16][17]
When considering the depths of speculation that Don Calo plumbs when he writes this paragraph, Pik Botha's words, "absolute rubbish" and his "R10m lawsuit", look entirely appropriate.
Business interests
Palazzolo quickly ingratiated himself with the National Party when he arrived in South Africa in 1986 and also successfully wooed many in the African National Congress (ANC) long before Mandela’s party won the 1994 election, which definitively ended the Apartheid regime.[18] Palazzolo established businesses in Southern Africa, ranging from bottled water to diamond prospecting. His interests are represented either through his sons Christian and Pietro, or through the Von Palace Kolbatschenko Trust. The trust, with offices in Cape Town, is affiliated to Palazzolo's Cape International Holdings, registered in the British Virgin Islands.[12]
Palazzolo administers his businesses directly himself, and the VPK Trust is a family Trust.
Among the approximately 20 companies allegedly linked to him are Anglo-Cape Diamonds, Von Palace Cutting Works and La Vie Mineral Waters. One big foreign deal involved taking a 15% stake in a valuable Angolan diamond concession. Since a tax audit on him started in September 1997, he has argued that his only business enterprise in South Africa is the Franschhoek farm, and that he has no other tax liabilities in the country.[12]
Palazzolo has acted and still acts for more than 20 companies worldwide; he is a financial consultant to various mining enterprises and sometimes if the client is short of funds, he accepts some participation in form of shares or equity in projects.
Heading a Mafia "family" in South Africa
Investigations into Palazzolo restarted in 1995 when police in the Cape received inquiries from Italian police, who were after Mariano Tullio Troia, a Sicilian mafioso wanted for the murder of Salvatore Lima, an associate of former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti. A March 1998 briefing compiled by Western Cape police intelligence said Italian police claimed Troia was being harboured by Sicilian Salvatore Morettino, a naturalised South African citizen living in Houghton. The Italian police also gave information of contact between Palazzolo and a prominent Sicilian mafia boss, Giovanni Brusca, convicted in Italy for the murder of Antimafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.[6] The document alleged that Palazzolo was believed to head a Mafia "family" in South Africa. Apart from Troia, Mafia suspects Giovanni Bonomo and Giuseppe Gelardi were given refuge by Palazzolo in South Africa and Namibia after they escaped arrest in Italy. Italian police travelled to South Africa, where they confirmed the presence of a number of mafia suspects and "the existence of a well-knit network of corrupted South African officials that protect the Italian fugitives".[12][6]
The above lies came from the PITU (presidential Investigation Task). Bonomo & Gelardi were not fugitives from Italian Justice when they tavelled to SA. Troia is the cousin of Dr. Morettino and, since he the day he got married in Johannesburg, has never set foot in South Africa. When he was arrested in Palermo they found a baby born of the woman who had hosted him since becoming a fugitive. It was unlikely that he had the time or the opportunity to have slipped away into hiding, meanwhile, in South Africa. All of these were fabrications by police officials in South Africa who cashed in on the story, paid out by the Italian State Police. The absurdity of which was illustrated when the police raided a house where Troia was supposed to be hiding, where they found instead a law abiding, ordinary South African citizen, who reported them to the Police! The Italian Police were thoroughly embarrassed by this and were ordered by tbe Attorney General in Palermo to fly back to Italy immediately.
More judicial inquiries
In November 1999, Palazzolo was arrested in connection with fraud and forgery charges relating to his South African citizenship. Home affairs officials discovered that it was issued fraudulently. He was released on a 500,000 rand bail,[11] but re-arrested at his Bantry Bay home in Cape Town in March 2000.[19] In March 2003, he was acquitted of contravening South African law when applying for citizenship in 1994.[20] The judge criticised the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for wasting the court's time with cases they could never win.[21]
The High Court rebuked the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for bringing this case in the first place, told them to withdraw it and to apologise to Palazzolo.
Investigators also probed Palazzolo's alleged role in money laundering through Liechtenstein companies and trusts and requested legal assistance from authorities. An international cooperation granted by the regional court in Vaduz in March 2000 has been ruled invalid. Following an agreement between lawyers for the state and Palazzolo, the Cape High Court ordered that the state "shall forthwith withdraw the requests for mutual legal assistance to Liechtenstein and Switzerland respectively and also any similar requests made to any other countries since 1999".[11] This means investigators cannot access documents, computer data and other information obtained from four companies and trusts based in. The material was seized and sealed after the Vaduz court approved the cooperation request, stating that "for the period from 1986 to present, the South African investigation authorities have managed to trace approximately 90 transactions to a total of approximately R101,5-million". The Vaduz court decision filed in the Cape High Court said there was a "shrewd scheme" to conceal money flows of millions of dollars into the control of Palazzolo. Reference was made to various offshore accounts, including suspected "Cosa Nostra accounts" and several other companies based outside South Africa.[11]
It is hard to know what Don Calo is alluding to, suffice it to say that Palazzolo's money was released by the Attorney General of Switzerland and declared in writing that the money was clean and did not originate from any crime.
Convicted in Italy
This section has been covered in Court Cases above, which list the latest, relevant cases. There is no space to list all his cases which are very complex and long winded so to mention just a few aspects (like Pentiti or State Witnesses, as Don Calo does) is a misrepresentation of Palazzolo's case.
Palazzolo's denials
Palazzolo has always denied that he is involved in organised crime, has any links to the Mafia, nor enjoys close relations with politicians in the government. In 1992, a court in Rome had found him not guilty of being a member of the Mafia. "I was acquitted of Mafia charges, but I am always the 'alleged Mafia don' and it is disturbing to be portrayed that way to family and friends," Palazzolo maintains.[21]
Public relations adviser?
He hired a public relations adviser, Aldo Sarullo, a former actor, playwright and director, who advised Palermo's Antimafia mayor, Leoluca Orlando, and later Silvio Berlusconi's party Forza Italia, to change his image as Mafia boss.[22]
Palazzolo did not hire Aldo Sarullo, nor ever considered hiring him.
Denials
In an interview with the Italian news agency ANSA in July 2009 he denied to be the so-called treasurer for former Cosa Nostra bosses Riina and Provenzano. He said that "for me it is a great dishonour to be considered the treasurer of Riina and Provenzano, two of the biggest criminals Italy has known. It is shameful to be accused of managing the wealth of these two men, whom I have never met. Perhaps others are proud of being associated with them, like state's witnesses, but not me." He challenged "the Italian police or any police, even the secret service, to produce one single transaction I am alleged to have carried out on behalf of Provenzano or Riina." Palazzolo claims he had been "persecuted" by Italian magistrates based on testimony given by crime figures who had turned state's witnesses.[23]
Extradition denied
In January 2007 the Italian government requested the extradition of Palazzolo after the nine-year sentence was handed down by the Italian court for collusion with the Mafia. This was the sixth request from the Italians since 1992.[24][25] In June 2010, the High Court of South Africa blocked the extradition of Palazzolo due to lack of double criminality requirement as South Africa does not recognize the crime of Mafia association as conceived in Italy. Moreover, the Court also found double jeopardy as Palazzolo had already been acquitted of Mafia association in 1992 by a court in Rome. For the Italian authorities Palazzolo remains a fugitive from justice.[25][26]
This paragraph is largely illiterate. What Don Calo means is that the High Court of South Africa denied Palazzolo's extradition because of the principle of Double Jeopardy, which is the principle that no man or woman can be tried twice for the same crime. Ergo, Palazzolo had already been tried in Switzerland in 1985, for the same facts. Likewise, his acquittal in Rome in 1992.
Palazzolo Website
In September 2010, Palazzolo opened a website to counter the allegations against him. He maintains that he is wrongly persecuted by the Italian judicial authorities. According to Palazzolo he is the victim of "a politically-charged vendetta that has been waged against me by lawyers, crusading politicians, journalists and opportunists who have climbed onto the bandwagon. It is based on a scourge of hearsay, aspersions, half truths, legal twists, inventions and total fabrications. The rule of law has been subverted for the principle of 'success' in the war against crime. Justice has become about newspaper headlines. The political careers of the leading lights in this war have taken on a life of their own, overriding any legal obstacles in securing a conviction against me. I was scooped up in their nets and dished up to the media as proof of their success in the fight against organised crime."[27]
References
- ^ Appeal Court Caltanissetta accepts review application2.pdf
- ^ [http://www.vrpalazzolo.com/?p=1726 Attorney General in Palermo in March of 2005]
- ^ Supplement to a memorandum by The Advocate Baldassare Lauria on 13th May 2009
- ^ Template:It icon 'Pizza connection' tre le condanne e una assoluzione, La Repubblica, September 27, 1985
- ^ Top cop backs Mafia man, Mail & Guardian, December 12, 1997
- ^ a b c d e f Palazzolo: The mobster from Burgersdorp, Mail & Guardian, November 19, 1999
- ^ Template:De icon "Pizza Connection"-Mitglied in Südafrika verhaftet, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 4, 1988
- ^ Template:De icon Schmutzige Wäsche, Der Spiegel, May 12, 1986
- ^ FBI names Palazzolo as Cosa Nostra don, Mail & Guardian, October 12, 1998
- ^ Palazzolo top mafioso - FBI, Daily Dispatch, October 13, 1998
- ^ a b c d Charges against Palazzolo dropped, Mail & Guardian, September 14, 2001
- ^ a b c d e f Nats were in bed with Mafia boss, Mail & Guardian, February 5, 1999
- ^ 'SA mafia' fears Vito's arrest, Mail & Guardian, November 19, 1999
- ^ Men of honour, Africa Confidential, 40(3), February 5, 1999
- ^ Did Palazzolo blackmail Pik?, Mail & Guardian, October 9, 1998
- ^ Dispatch readers first to hear of Palazzolo, Daily Dispatch, October 15, 1998
- ^ 'It's rubbish' - Pik Botha, Mail & Guardian, October 16, 1998
- ^ Mafia man free ... for now, Mail & Guardian, July 3, 1998
- ^ Palazzolo re-arrested, Mail & Guardian, March 6, 2000
- ^ Businessman Palazzolo cleared of all charges, SAPA, March 14, 2003
- ^ a b 'Palazzolo case wasted the court's time', Weekend Argus, March 14, 2003
- ^ Alleged mafia don hires image consultant, The Guardian, June 30, 2004
- ^ Fugitive Refutes Mafia Ties, ANSA, July 1, 2009
- ^ Department of Justice accused of bias against Palazzolo, The Cape Times, May 19, 2010
- ^ a b Template:Af icon Palazzolo wen stryd teen uitlewering, Die Burger, June 15, 2010
- ^ Template:It icon Il Sudafrica nega l'estradizione di Palazzolo, La Repubblica, June 19, 2010
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
website
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
- Template:De icon Roth, Jürgen (2004), Ermitteln verboten! Warum die Polizei den Kampf gegen die Kriminalität aufgegeben hat, Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn Verlag, ISBN 3-8218-5588-6
External links
- Vito Roberto Palazzolo's Website
- Template:It icon Vito Roberto Palazzolo è un latitante, ma vive libero in Sudafrica, Antimafia Duemila, N° 28, January 2003
- Template:It icon Concorso esterno. Ma l’imputato è mafioso, by Monica Centofante, Antimafia Duemila, N°50, 2006