Italian court sentences 34 to jail for mafia killings
AFP
ROME,(AFP) - An Italian court Thursday sentenced 34 people to prison, one of them for 13 years, for a 2007 mafia massacre in Germany which claimed six lives, a prosecutor said.
"Thirty-four detainees were sentenced and 10 were acquitted," said Nicola Gratteri from the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria.
She said Sandro Vottari, who is accused of ordering the 2006 Christmas execution of a rival mafia gangster's wife, got 13 years. Gratteri did not specify the lengths of the other sentences.
The bodies of six clan members, aged between 16 and 39, were found in the boots of two cars near the Da Bruno restaurant in the German town of Duisburg on August 15, 2007.
The execution-style killings in the early morning hours threw an international spotlight on a long-running vendetta between the Nirta-Strangio and Pelle-Vottari clans of the 'Ndrangheta mafia, one of four operating in Italy.
Dozens of suspected mafiosi went on trial last year following a probe into the feud that began well before the Duisburg massacre, claiming nearly 20 lives since 1991.
The chief suspect in the Duisburg killings, 30-year-old Giovanni Strangio, was arrested in the town of Diemen, east of Amsterdam on March 12. He claims he is innocent.
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The bodies of six clan members, aged between 16 and 39, were found in the boots of two cars near the Da Bruno restaurant in the German town of Duisburg on August 15, 2007.
The execution-style killings in the early morning hours threw an international spotlight on a long-running vendetta between the Nirta-Strangio and Pelle-Vottari clans of the 'Ndrangheta mafia, one of four operating in Italy.
Dozens of suspected mafiosi went on trial last year following a probe into the feud that began well before the Duisburg massacre, claiming nearly 20 lives since 1991.
The chief suspect in the Duisburg killings, 30-year-old Giovanni Strangio, was arrested in the town of Diemen, east of Amsterdam on March 12. He claims he is innocent.
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