The trial, which opened in Italy and will last more than two years, includes 355 defendants including politicians, police and public servants and even a former prime minister – all suspected of membership in the country’s most powerful criminal organization. Will be held in a building specially converted for this purpose
N12
| Published 13/01/21 15:19
But the special court in Italy | Photography: Reuters
Italy today (Wednesday) opened the largest organized crime trial since the 1980s, in which hundreds of suspects will be prosecuted in companies in the mafia that goes by the name “Nedramjata”, the most powerful criminal organization in Italy. 900 witnesses will testify at the trial, but a special court has been converted for this very purpose.
For more updates and to send your stories – visit the news Facebook page
In recent years, the Italian authorities have conducted a lengthy investigation, culminating in a trial in which a particularly high number of defendants; 355 people suspected of membership in the Nadramjata mafia. Today is the first day of historic trial, which is expected to last more than two years. It will take place in a building located in the heart of the Mafia area, which used to be the municipality’s call center and was converted into a specially fortified building for the purpose of the discussions. During the trial, more than 900 testimonies will be heard, and the indictment includes murder, drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering.
According to the indictment, Ndramjata controlled the supply of huge amounts of cocaine that came from South America and other areas to Europe. Hundreds of defendants, however, are suspected of many serious counts of drug crimes. These include the formation of a mafia, murder, attempted murder, extortion, illegal lending, the disclosure of official state secrets and abuse of office.
In one of the pre-trial hearings, it took more than 3 hours just to read the names of all the defendants. These, include politicians, police officers, civil servants, mafia members and various external partners. The trial is mostly aimed at the Mancuso family, who took a significant part in “Nramjata”. The defendant with the highest profile is the suspect in the mafia boss, 66-year-old Luigi Mancoso, known as “the uncle.”
Other defendants respond to other nicknames such as “the wolf”, “fat” and “blondie”, and the total number of defendants reached more than 400 people – 92 of whom chose a separate and faster trial. These include former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and former lawyer and senator. Most of the defendants in the trial were detained in raids in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Bulgaria in December 2019.
“This sentence shows how deep ‘Nramjata”s roots are in society, ‘” said Federico Verza, a professor of criminology at Oxford University. “It’s shocking that you have a crime group so rooted in the field that you have to prosecute hundreds of people.”
The prosecutor in the case is the famous “bakery fighter” in Italy, 62-year-old Nicola Gertree, who has enjoyed close police security for more than three decades. His promise is to overthrow “Nramjata”, which he says “holds the breath and heartbeat of the people”. However, Prof. Verza warned that the trial would not mark the end of the group. “You can throw them in jail,” he said, “but if you do not cut down the roots of the reason for their existence, they will simply multiply.”