Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 14, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
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Italian author Roberto Saviano wept as mob boss Francesco Bidognetti was convicted in Rome for intimidation, marking a victory against the Camorra.
ROME (Reuters) -Italian anti-Mafia author Roberto Saviano wept in court on Monday as judges upheld a conviction against a notorious mob boss who was found to have threatened him.
Francesco Bidognetti, a former leader of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia who was already serving life for a slew of other serious crimes, was sentenced to 18 months for intimidation.
The Rome court of appeals confirmed a 2021 ruling by a lower court, as it also upheld a 14-month sentence for Bidognetti's former lawyer, Michele Santonastaso, for the same crime.
After the verdict, Saviano, 45, sobbed profusely as he hugged his lawyer. He told reporters that Camorra mobsters had "stolen his life", forcing him to live under 24-hour protection.
The convictions are related to a message Santonastaso read out in court in 2008, during another trial, on behalf of Bidognetti and another Camorra boss.
The message contained an "invitation" to Saviano and another journalist to "do (their) job properly", interpreted as a not-so-subtle hint to stop writing about the Neapolitan mafia.
Saviano has lived under police escort since 2006, when he published "Gomorrah", an expose on the Camorra that has also been made into a film and a TV series.
The book's huge success turned Saviano into a public figure but also into an enemy for Bidognetti's ruthless Camorra clan, the Casalesi.
(Reporting by Paolo Chiriatti, writing by Alvise ArmelliniEditing by Keith Weir)
The convictions are related to a message read out in court in 2008, which contained an 'invitation' to Saviano and another journalist to stop writing about the Neapolitan mafia.
Saviano sobbed profusely in court after the verdict, expressing that Camorra mobsters had 'stolen his life' and forced him to live under 24-hour protection.
Francesco Bidognetti is a former leader of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia, already serving life for other serious crimes, who received an additional 18-month sentence for intimidation.
Gomorrah is an expose on the Camorra written by Saviano, which has gained significant attention and has been adapted into a film and a TV series.
The court upheld an 18-month sentence for Bidognetti and a 14-month sentence for his former lawyer, Michele Santonastaso, for intimidation.
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