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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 21 November 2023
More than 200 convicted in Italy’s maxi-trial involving the

‘ndrangheta crime syndicate

By GIADA ZAMPANO and it can be noted that there
PAOLO SANTALUCIA was no aspect of the life of
Associated Press the social economic fabric
LAMEZIA TERME, Italy (AP) — of the province that was
An Italian tribunal on Mon- not conditioned by the ca-
day convicted 207 people pacity of the force of intimi-
and sentenced them to a dation of this so dangerous
combined 2,100 years in criminal organization,” he
prison on charges related said. Giuseppe Di Renzo,
to their membership in Ita- defense attorney for sev-
ly’s ‘ndrangheta organized eral of the defendants,
crime syndicate, one of the however noted that more
world’s most powerful, ex- than a third of the original
tensive and wealthy drug- defendants were fully ac-
trafficking groups. quitted, while others were
It took over an hour and found not guilty of some
40 minutes to read aloud charges. He criticized the
the court’s lengthy verdict, disparate and large num-
including the acquittal of ber of defendants, saying
131 other defendants. The they showed there was
drama unfolded in a bun- no cohesive thread to the
ker-stye courtroom in the prosecutors’ case. But Cat-
southern Calabria region, President of the court judge Brigida Cavasino, center, flanked by judges Claudia Caputo, left, and anzaro’s former chief pros-
where the mob organiza- Germana Radice, reads the verdicts of a maxi-trial of hundreds of people accused of membership ecutor who launched the
tion was originally based. in Italy’s ‘ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, one of the world’s most powerful, extensive and investigation, Nicola Grat-
The ‘ndrangheta has qui- wealthy drug-trafficking groups, in Lamezia Terme, southern Italy, Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. teri, said mafia trials often
etly amassed power in Italy Associated Press have to cast wide nets be-
and abroad as the Sicilian have been arrested in re- actually being a member. Capomolla, deputy chief cause of the very nature of
Mafia lost influence and cent years around Europe The charges grew out prosecutor of Catanzaro, how the criminal syndicates
now holds almost a mo- and in Brazil and Lebanon. of an investigation of 12 said prosecutors’ overall operate, infiltrating across
nopoly on cocaine impor- The defendants had been clans linked to a convicted case held up with the con- wide swaths of society.
tation in Europe, according charged with crimes that ‘ndrangheta boss. The cen- victions and confirmed the The trial took place in a
to anti-mafia prosecutors include drug and arms traf- tral figure, Luigi Mancuso, stranglehold the ‘ndrang- specially constructed high-
who led the investigation ficking, extortion and mafia served 19 years in an Italian heta held on Vibo Valentia. security bunker. Part of an
in southern Italy. The orga- association, a term in Italy’s prison for his role in leading “The infiltration of the crimi- industrial park in Lamezia
nization also has bases in penal code for members what investigators allege is nal organization in the Terme, the bunker is so vast
North and South America of organized crime groups. one of the ‘ndrangheta’s province of Vibo Valentia that video screens were
and is active in Africa, Ital- Others were charged with most powerful crime fami- was so deep-rooted and anchored to the ceiling so
ian prosecutors maintain, acting in complicity with lies, based in the town of so widespread, so alarm- participants could view the
and ‘ndrangheta figures the ‘ndrangheta without Vibo Valentia. Vincenzo ing, so disturbing that I think proceedings. q

A French bishop is accused of attempted rape in latest scandal to

hit Catholic Church in France

PARIS (AP) — A French preliminary charge of at- man a decade ago, the for years. The allegations questioning last week and
bishop has been given a tempting to rape an adult Paris prosecutor’s office didn’t reach prosecu- magistrates filed a prelimi-
said Monday. It is the latest tors until May of this year. nary charge on Friday, the
of a growing number of ac- That’s when lawyers for the prosecutor’s office said.
cusations of sexual abuse Archdiocese of Paris and a Colomb is under judicial su-
by clergy in France. Catholic group called the pervision and barred from
The Bishops’ Conference of Foreign Missions of Paris, contact with the victim or
France said the accused shortened to MEP in French, witnesses pending further
bishop, Georges Colomb, submitted a report of a investigation. His accus-
contests the charge and rape attempt by Colomb er has not been publicly
deserves the presump- in 2013, according to the named. After the alleged
tion of innocence. He has prosecutor’s office. rape attempt, the man
asked the Vatican to step Colomb headed the MEP spoke about what hap-
aside from his duties as from 2010 to 2016, and pened to another official in
bishop of La Rochelle and his accuser was staying in the MEP, Gilles Reithinger.
Saintes in western France to MEP facilities at the time Reithinger told public
prepare his defense. of the incident, according broadcaster France-3 that
French investigative web- to French media reports. the man said Colomb pro-
site Mediapart reported Colomb became a bish- posed an oil massage that
All of the bishops of France attend a mass in Notre-Dame that senior figures in the op in 2016. As a result of made him uncomfortable
Cathedral in Lourdes, southwestern France, on Nov. 9, 2019. Catholic Church were the ensuing investigation, but didn’t mention any sex-
Associated Press aware of the accusations Colomb was detained for ual wrongdoing. q