Giuseppe Guttadauro
Encyclopedia
) is an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
boss and a high profile surgeon from the Rocella neighbourhood in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
. Born in Bagheria
Bagheria
Bagheria is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy.-Etymology:According to some sources, the name Bagheria originates from the Phoenician term Bayharia meaning "land that descends toward the sea." Other sources claim that it derives from the Arabic Bāb al-Gerib, or "windy...
, he became the regent of the Brancaccio
Brancaccio
Brancaccio is a neighbourhood of Palermo, Sicily. It is a semi-traditional area of the working class. It was important in the history of the Cosa Nostra....
mandamento
Mandamento
Historically a mandamento was the part of Italian territory under the jurisdiction of a "pretore" which is a kind of magistrate. These divisions were abolished in 1923....
after the arrest and subsequent incarceration of the Mafia bosses Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He is currently serving several life sentences....
and Filippo Graviano in 1994.
Guttadauro was arrested in November 2002. His wife Gisella Greco and son were arrested on December 6, 2002 in a vast operation against the Mafia (Operation Ghiaccio), in which Guttadauro received another arrest warrant. His wife and son allegedly continued to run illicit business in his absence and acted as a conduit for his messages to other Mafia bosses on the outside.
Police had bugged
Covert listening device
A covert listening device, more commonly known as a bug or a wire, is usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. The use of bugs, called bugging, is a common technique in surveillance, espionage and in police investigations.A bug does not have to be a device...
Guttadauro’s apartment and he was overheard discussing political appointments with the city's public health councillor Domenico Miceli, himself a doctor. (Miceli was sentenced to eight years for mafia association in December 2006) Guttadauro learned that his home was being "bugged" from another doctor. The colleague alleged that he, in turn, had been tipped off by the President of the Sicilian region Salvatore Cuffaro
Salvatore Cuffaro
Salvatore "Totò" Cuffaro is an Italian politician, former President of Sicily, currently serving a 7 years sentence for aiding the Mafia...
.
Before Guttadauro discovered the eavesdropping, he was recorded apparently describing how the Mafia had funded Cuffaro's 2001 election campaign. According to a transcript, he told his brother-in-law that Cuffaro was handed packages of cash "in the least elegant, but most tangible way possible".
The inquiry set up to trace the origin of leaks during an investigation into Guttadauro led to the questioning of Cuffaro by the Palermo prosecuting office, and in September 2004 to an indictment charging Cuffaro with aiding and abetting the Mafia. Cuffaro refused to resign when sent for trial, saying he would only do so if convicted. In the meantime he was re-elected as President in 2006 regional election
Sicilian regional election, 2006
The Sicilian regional election of 2006 for the renewal of the Regional Assembly and the Presidency of Sicily was held on 28 May 2006.The election was competed by three competitors: Salvatore Cuffaro, incumbent President and House of Freedoms candidate; Rita Borsellino, candidate of The Union; and...
defeating Rita Borsellino
Rita Borsellino
Rita Borsellino is an anti-Mafia activist, Sicilian politician, and sister of the late judge Paolo Borsellino, killed by the Corleonesi in 1992 by a car bomb...
, the sister of the late judge Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Borsellino was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo, less than two months after his fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone had been assassinated....
, killed by the Mafia in 1992. On October 15, 2007, the prosecution requested eight years' imprisonment for Cuffaro for passing confidential information to the so-called moles in the Palermo Antimafia directorate. Cuffaro was sentenced to seven years in prison for favouring the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
.