The Court d'Assise President, Raimondo Romeres reads out the verdict of the final sentences on 19 June 2008. (Photo:EPA)
The Spartacus Trial (Italian: Processo Spartacus) was a series of criminal trials, each specifically directed against the activities of the powerful Casalesi clan of the Camorra. The trial was opened at the Corte d'Assise of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Caserta. It was named after the historical gladiator, Spartacus (who led a rebellion of slaves beginning in old Capua against the ancient Roman Empire). The trial was initially chaired by its president, Catello Marano on 1 July 1998. It continued just over ten years, until its final verdict was eventually read on 19 June 2008.[1][2]
In that 10-year legal trial, 36 members of the clan were charged with a string of murders and other crimes. The Casalesi clan had exploited and extorted from every business and economic opportunity, from waste disposal to construction, in creating a monopoly in the cement market for their own building businesses to the distribution of materials.[vague] Building business would have to pay for the contracts, buy material from the clan, and keep paying for protection. The clan also controlled elections.[3]
All defendants were found guilty and 16 sentenced to life imprisonment including prominent Casalesi bosses, Francesco Schiavone and his chief lieutenant, Francesco Bidognetti. The other two bosses Antonio Iovine and Michele Zagaria were also given life sentences. They were on the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy, with international warrants for their arrest[2][4] until Iovine was arrested on 17 November 2010,[5] and Zagaria on 7 December 2011.[6] The other Casalesi clan members who received life sentences were: Giuseppe Caterino, Cipriano D'Alessandro, Enrico Martinelli, Sebastiano Panaro, Giuseppe Russo, Walter Schiavone, Luigi Venosa, Vincenzo Zagaria, Alfredo Zara, Mario Caterino and Raffaele Diana.
More than 1,300 people were investigated, 508 witnesses gave evidence and 626 were interviewed in the trial which saw the heaviest penalties ever for organised crime with a total of 700 years of imprisonment. Over the course of the initial trial and the appeal, five people involved in the case were murdered, including a court interpreter. A judge and two journalists were threatened with death.[3][4] In all, 115 people were prosecuted, 27 life sentences, plus 750 years in prison were handed out to the defendants. On 15 January 2010, Italy's Supreme Court confirmed the sentence.[7][8]
^(in Italian) Il maxiprocesso Spartacus e il silenzio della stampa, Cuntrastamu, 30 September 2005
^ ab(in Italian) «Processo Spartacus», 16 ergastoli ai Casalesi, Corriere del Mezzogiorno, June 20, 2008
^ abCamorra get terms they can't refuse, Sydney Morning Herald, June 21, 2008
^ abGodfathers of €25bn mafia family get life after epic trial, The Independent, 20 June 2008
^Camorra Boss Antonio Iovine Arrested, Corriere della Sera, November 18, 2010
^"Catturato Michele Zagaria dopo assedio a Casapesenna". La Repubblica (in Italian). 7 December 2011.
^(in Italian) La Cassazione conferma le condanne al clan dei Casalesi, Corriere della Sera, January 15, 2010
^(in Italian) La Cassazione conferma la sentenza: Sedici ergastoli contro i Casalesi, La Repubblica, 15 January 2010
The SpartacusTrial (Italian: Processo Spartacus) was a series of criminal trials, each specifically directed against the activities of the powerful Casalesi...
were grouped together in the SpartacusTrial. Over 1,300 people were investigated and 500 witness took the stand. The trial against 36 members of the Casalesi...
Spartacus e il silenzio della stampa Archived 9 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Cuntrastamu, 30 September 2005 (in Italian) «Processo Spartacus»...
finally sentenced to life on 19 June 2008, after a 10-year trial, named the SpartacusTrial, against 36 members of the Casalesi clan charged with a string...
protection beginning on 13 October 2006. On 14 March 2008, during the SpartacusTrial, the attorney for Casalese bosses Francesco Bidognetti and Antonio...
sentenced, in absentia, to life on 15 January 2010, after 12-year trial—named the SpartacusTrial—against 36 members of the Casalesi clan, charged with a string...
He was sentenced to life on June 19, 2008, after 10-year trial—named the SpartacusTrial—against 36 members of the Casalesi clan charged with a string...
2, 2011, in Casal di Principe. He received a life sentence at the SpartacusTrial against the Casalesi clan. List of fugitives from justice who disappeared...
hashtag #iamspartacus, in reference to the climactic "I am Spartacus!" scene in the 1960 film Spartacus. A further appeal to the High Court was heard on 8 February...
fugitive. His brother Sebastiano Panaro received a life sentence at the SpartacusTrial against the Casalesi clan. Nicola Panaro is accused of being the intermediary...
Trek: Enterprise. Cummings starred as Sura, the wife of Spartacus, in the Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Muscle & Fitness magazine featured Cummings...
June 19, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2021. John Simkin. "Ethel Rosenberg". Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd. Archived from the original on June 30, 2014...
Fabian Cancellara (born 18 March 1981), nicknamed "Spartacus", is a Swiss cycling executive, businessman and former professional road racing cyclist who...
tenure alleged that, during the time of the Third Servile War against Spartacus, he had used the emergency to raise cash. He would, allegedly, pick key...
Görlitz 1989, p. 161. Encyclopedia Britannica. Shirer 1990, p. 758. Spartacus Educational. Scherzer 2007, p. 146. Kershaw, Ian (2012). The End; Germany...
convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before the trial Hiss was involved in the establishment of the United Nations, both as a...
2020. Bobby Seale Archived March 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine at Spartacus Educational "HONORING THELMA TRAYLOR SEALE". Congressional Record. 154...
scripted many award-winning films, including Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus, Spartacus (both 1960), and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood...
Bolsheviks in Russia. In 1914 Liebknecht and Luxemburg had founded the Marxist Spartacus League (Spartakusbund), which gave the uprising its popular name. The...
Hollywood Ten, was publicly credited with writing the films Exodus and Spartacus. Much of the undoing of McCarthyism came at the hands of the U.S. Supreme...
phone call from Kirk Douglas asking him to direct Spartacus (1960), based on the historical Spartacus and the Third Servile War. Douglas had acquired the...
staunchest opponents of the war throughout the Reich. That gave rise to the Spartacus League on 1 January 1916; it was renamed the Spartacist League after its...
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