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Helen Mirren: My mafia connection – Mafia Documentary On Page

The British actress explains why she decided to narrate the documentary A Very Sicilian Justice.

By Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren is an award-winning British actress.

I am passionate about Italy – in particular the people and places of South Italy – and I have a much-loved home there.

Italy has a dark history of mafia violence and political corruption. But it also has many incredibly brave and brilliant public servants – police, magistrates and politicians – who risk their lives and careers day in, day out to fight this enemy within. The threats they receive also put their family life under terrible strain.

These largely unsung heroes need to be recognised and supported.

At the heart of the documentary A Very Sicilian Justice is the astonishing and shocking story of one man – a public servant – who lives in fear and whose freedom is severely restricted simply because he is doing his job.

I also have a personal connection to the events described in the documentary. A close friend – the architect we employed to build our house in Italy, Brizio Montinaro – lost his brother in 1992 in the explosion of mafia violence described in the film.

Antonio Montinaro was a police bodyguard who died alongside the famous anti-mafia prosecutor, Judge Giovanni Falcone, in a bomb attack as he escorted the judge along the Palermo motorway. Falcone’s wife and two other bodyguards were also killed.

Today, almost 25 years later, Judge Antonino Di Matteo is investigating the criminal and political context behind these and other killings and, incredibly, finds himself under tremendous threat for doing so.

The murder plot and threats against Judge Di Matteo show that these events from the past are still very much alive today.

As Di Matteo says in the film, unless Italy faces up to and uncovers the truth behind this tragic period in its recent history, the events of this terrible “season of terror” will continue to poison and polarise Italy’s body politic for ever.

In Italy, the ongoing trials and investigations into this period are little reported. Internationally, this story is virtually unknown.

I hope that A Very Sicilian Justice, by bringing these important events to a worldwide audience, will give added support and recognition to Judge Di Matteo and his colleagues.

Many think Italian organised crime and corruption are confined somehow within Italy’s borders, but this is a dangerous misunderstanding of what “mafia” is.

The proceeds of crime are not only invested abroad and hidden in international tax havens. According to Italian investigators, mafias worldwide have changed their modus operandi. They are increasingly sophisticated, work together and operate more quietly than before through political corruption and by infiltrating the business and financial worlds.

Despite the recent referendum result in the UK and the potential knock-on effect of a severely divided Europe, I passionately believe countries, now more than ever, need to be vigilant, cooperate and unite if we are to win the battle against organised crime and political corruption.

Full article – http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/07/helen-mirren-mafia-connection-160706080712820.html

How the Italian mafia’s top mobsters used a five-year-old girl to smuggle secret notes after taking her out for ice cream

  • Matteo Messina Denaro, head of the Sicilian mafia, is Italy’s most wanted
  • He and his right hand man used Attilio Fogazza’s daughter to run memos
  • Notes were shoved in the five-year-old’s backpack and jacket after gelato
  • Cosa Nostra kingpin Messina Denaro on the run for more than 20 years  

Italy’s most wanted mobster used a five-year-old girl to run secret messages for him, a mafia informant has revealed.

Head of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Matteo Messina Denaro used Attilio Fogazza’s young daughter to carry handwritten notes between himself and other mafia top dogs.

Kingpin Denaro has not been seen in public for 20 years, and is considered in the top 10 most wanted men in the world.

Fogazza, who himself is on a murder charge, said Messina Denaro’s second-in-command Domenico ‘Mimmo’ Scimonelli approached his daughter to run the memos, known as ‘pizzini’.

The right-hand man had taken his daughter for an ice cream and put the messages inside her jacket and backpack.

The daughter and the rest of Fogazza’s family have been living in a secret location under police protection while he co-operates with the prosecutors as they attempt to bring down the ‘boss of bosses’ in the Italian mafia scene.

Fogazza, 44, ran a car dealership in south-western Sicily and decided to collaborate with Palermo investigators after he was arrested last December for the murder of Salvatore Lombardo in 2009 who was killed after he stole a van from Scimonelli.

“One day my daughter said ‘Uncle Mimmo’ had taken her for a gelato and put the messages inside her jacket and her backpack,” Fogazza told prosecutors in Palermo according to Italian media reports.

Last year, a Palermo judge sentenced six men including Scimonelli from the hierarchy of the Cosa Nostra – meaning ‘Our Thing’ – to a total of 80 years in prison for racketeering, conspiracy and aiding and abetting the mafia.

Head honcho Messina Denaro, 54, has not been seen in public since the early 90s, but a new e-fit was created in 2014 with the help of another informant.

He is wanted for a string of offences, and a judge found him guilty in his absence in 1993 for his part in the bomb attacks that killed 10 people in Rome, Florence and Milan.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3684773/Matteo-Messina-Denaro-head-mafia-Sicily-used-five-year-old-girl-smuggle-Cosa-Nostra-notes.html#ixzz4EBIyOjwO
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Russian mafia ‘increasingly active’ in Germany

The Russian mafia is becoming “increasingly active” in Germany, with networks recruiting in German prisons and groups bringing in billions of euros each year, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has warned.

“The Russian-Eurasian organized criminality is very dynamic” BKA President Holger Münch told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “They are already expanding in the west.”

One of the most dangerous groups, according to Münch, is the so-called ‘Thieves in law’ (Diebe im Gesetz) gang, founded in Stalin’s labour camps. The group from the former Soviet Union have their own ‘laws’ and a secret language, and is thought to be recruiting from within Germany’s prisons.

The BKA has previously linked 20,000 and 40,000 people in Germany to the group, and authorities believe that its members in Germany today represent “a five-figure number” – only rough estimates are possible due to the clandestine nature of the groups.

“Eight to ten percent of inmates in German penal facilities are Russian-speaking or of Russian origin; about 5,000 people,” explained Münch. “Not all of them are part of ‘Thieves in law’ but this figure shows the large potential for recruitment for these groups in Germany.”

The BKA President emphasized that organized crime may be operating in areas not traditionally associated with the mafia, for example apartment break-ins and shoplifting; Münch mentioned one Georgian shoplifter who had been able to earn €500 per day, and said it could be assumed “with certainty” that in 2015 criminality by these gangs had led to billions of euros worth of damages.

The mafia groups are also thought to operate in drug trafficking, tax fraud, economic offences, protection money and prostitution.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is working closely with the BKA. Münch said: “When people use the asylum process to commit crimes, care must be taken to ensure that their stay is as short as possible and that they are quickly expelled.”

Full article – http://www.thelocal.de/20160711/russian-mafia-increasingly-active-in-germany

Plaintiff counsel withdrawing from personal injury case caused by workplace mold exposure

Nicholas Malfitano Jul. 5, 2016, 2:39pm

PHILADELPHIA – Plaintiff counsel in the case of a woman who claims she became disabled after long-term exposure to mold in her workplace has opted to leave the litigation associated with those claims.

Neil I. Mittin of Gay Chacker & Mittin filed a motion to withdraw appearance on May 5, explaining plaintiffs Julie Hice Carter and Ernest Carter of Smyrna, Del. had not responded to numerous attempts at contact, in order to proceed with proper litigation of their claims. Due to this presumed lack of cooperation, Mittin felt he had no choice but to withdraw from the case.

On June 30, Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas ordered Mittin’s withdrawal be permitted.

Hice Carter was hired by the Therapeutic Center at Fox Chase Villa at the Bridge in Ambler, formerly known as St. Mary’s Villa for Children and Families, in December 2012. In July 2013, Hice Carter says she began to notice black spots on the carpet and walls of bedrooms and bathrooms of St. Francis and St. John buildings at her workplace. Hice Carter says she reported this condition to the administrator of the program and the buildings’ maintenance supervisor, to no avail.

In August 2013, Hice Carter says she began to suffer a cough, shortness of breath, headaches and sinus congestion, among other respiratory ailments. The following month, she was allegedly unable to breathe at work and was admitted to the emergency room at Riddle Memorial Hospital – adding her symptoms worsened anytime she was in the aforementioned workplace buildings.

On Sept. 24, 2014, Hice Carter stated she became disabled from her employment due to the respiratory difficulties she developed as a result of prolonged mold exposure.

Hice Carter alleged she suffered reactive airway disease, acute bronchitis, asthma, cough, rhinitis plus damage to her lungs, nerves, nervous system, and other ills and injuries, resulting in a permanent loss of bodily function. Hice Carter added she possessed none of these conditions prior to her employment.

Read Full Article – http://pennrecord.com/stories/510941915-plaintiff-counsel-withdrawing-from-personal-injury-case-caused-by-workplace-mold-exposure

Duluth diocese sues insurers to cover abuse lawsuits

The Diocese of Duluth, which entered bankruptcy proceedings after a $4.9 million verdict in a child sexual abuse case, wants to ensure that its insurance companies help pay the bill.

The Duluth News-Tribune reports that the diocese is suing five insurance companiesLiberty Mutual Group, Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., Church Mutual Insurance Co. and Continental Insurance Co. — to compel them to participate in a mediation process between the church and 125 people who have filed abuse claims.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy last December. It’s facing many claims apart from the already-announced $4.9 million verdict and has an annual budget of just $3.3 million.

The lawsuit against insurers is similar to one filed by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which is also in bankruptcy and sued its insurance companies in 2014, accusing them of improperly rejecting its claims to cover the cost of the church’s settlement with victims of clergy sex abuse.

Read Full Article – http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2016/07/05/duluth-diocese-sues-insurers-to-cover-abuse.html