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| TOTO RIINA |
Anti-mafia
campaigners and victims of the Mob voiced fury Thursday after Italy’s national
broadcaster gave airtime to the son of Sicily’s most notorious gangster to
promote a book dedicated to his jailed father.
Salvatore Riina, the son of
notorious ‘boss of bosses’ Toto Riina, also reiterated two of the most
persistent myths about the mafia: that it does not really exist as an organised
crime syndicate and that its members operate to a moral code.
Salvatore Borsellino,
whose brother Paolo was assassinated in 1993 on Riina senior’s orders, said he
had felt sick when he read that state television company Rai had interviewed
the son of the mafia killer.
“It will only reopen the wounds of every family
that has been a victim of the mafia,” he said. The interview was conducted by
prominent journalist Bruno Vespa and broadcast on Wednesday evening on Italy’s
top current affairs programme, Porta a Porta.
“I am not the son of a supreme
boss, I’m the son of Toto… an upstanding man who respects family and
traditional values,” Salvatore said in the interview.
Toto Riina was arrested
in 1993 after ruling Sicily’s Cosa Nostra with an iron fist for over two
decades. He is believed to have ordered more than 150 murders, including the
assassinations of Borsellino and fellow anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.
Salvatore Riina is currently on parole after serving time for mafia
association.
Toto Riina’s arrest was seen as one of the Italian state’s most
important victories in its battle against the mafia. Salvatore said he saw it
differently because his father had been taken away from him. “I love my father,
my mother, my family, (that goes) beyond what they have been accused of,” he
said. “What is the mafia? I don’t have a precise answer, the mafia is
everything and nothing at all.”
Even RAI’s president, Monica Maggioni suggested
the decision to broadcast the interview had been a mistake, saying profits from
Riina’s book should be confiscated and handed to anti-mafia groups.
Rosy Bindi,
chair of the parliamentary anti-mafia committee, accused Vespa of “mafia
denial” and has summoned Rai bosses to explain the decision.
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PLEASE BE POLITE