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"20 years on the run from death": The unrelenting fear for Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano, the most famous Italian writer and journalist in the fight against the mafia, burst into merciless tears in the courtroom of the Court of Appeal in Rome, as he listened to the long-awaited verdict that sealed the life sentence of Francesco Bidognetti, the notorious head of the Casalesi clan, known as "Cicciotto 'e mezzanotte".
In front of the video link screen that broadcasted the face of the man who had turned his life into an armored prison since 2008, Saviano could no longer bear the weight of his emotions. Embraced by his lawyer Antonio Nobile, he repeated through tears: "They have stolen my life, they have crushed me...".
A dismantled life under police protection
Since the publication of the novel "Gomorrah" in 2006, a denunciation of the criminal empire in southern Italy, Saviano has been under permanent police protection. Not for luxury, but to avoid a predicted death.
" I am no longer able to manage this life. My body must be preserved. I have been living for 20 years, pursued by death ," he said in a hoarse voice. " They used to say that protection was a privilege. But every day I dream of a little freedom, a motorcycle ride, a walk... ", he added.
"Un abbraccio liberatorio atteso dal 2008. La Corte d'Appello di Roma ha confirmato le condanne ad 1 anno e mezzo di carcere per il capoclan Francesco Bidognetti e 1 anno e due mesi per l'avvocato Michele Santonastaso".
— Che Tempo Che Fa (@chetempochefa) July 14, 2025
- @robertosaviano ???? pic.twitter.com/l1L3AN1bwZ
Saviano recalled the dark March of 2008, when Bidognetti, through his lawyer, issued a “proclamation” in the Spartacus courtroom, which according to the prosecution was actually an execution order against him and journalist Rosaria Capacchione. Just four days later, he was urgently withdrawn from Campania to a secret island... without return.
" In the Casalesi neighborhoods, Giuseppe Setola, the boss of the most violent wing of the mafia, responsible for the massacre of immigrants from Ghana, was looking for me. The manhunt had begun ," he said.
"For the first time, journalism, not politics, was attacked in court"
This decision, which comes 17 years later, has a historical value for Saviano himself: " This is the most important sentence of my life. Because it has never happened that in a courtroom, the objective has not been politics, but journalism ," he said.
And while the audience cheered, Italian politics was completely absent from the hall. " Was there any of its representatives here? I didn't see any ," he concluded with deep bitterness.
Who is Roberto Saviano?
An icon of the fight against the modern mafia, author of the novel “Gomorrah” (2006), which has sold over 10 million copies and been turned into an internationally successful TV series and film. His articles have been published in The Guardian, El País, the Washington Post and many others.
For more than 18 years he has lived under full protection, isolated, monitored, without the ordinary life that the rest of us take for granted. He has won some of the most prestigious awards for freedom of speech and critical journalism, but the bitterest prize has been given to him by the system itself: loneliness and an interrupted life. /Pamphlet
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