Pentiti

Pentiti (Italian, literally meaning those who have repented) are former members of the Italian Mafia or similar criminal or terrorist organisations who have abandoned their criminal/terrorist organisation and helped police to discover as much as possible about the respective organisation, criminals, and in general anything related to their former criminal activities and membership. In exchange, pentiti receive lighter punishments for their crimes, and in some cases even freedom. In the Italian judicial system, the pentiti can obtain personal protection, a new name, and some money to start a new life in another place (possibly abroad).

Among the most famous mafia pentiti is Tommaso Buscetta, who was very helpful to judge Giovanni Falcone in describing the Cupola, the leading group within the Sicilian Mafia in the 1980s, and identifying the main operational channels that the mafia uses for its business.

Still in Italy, important successes were achieved with the cooperation of pentiti in the fight against terrorism (specially against the Red Brigades), by Carabinieri general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (later killed by mafia).

This practice is common in other countries as well, to fight criminal organizations. In the United States, criminals who testify against their former associates can enter the Witness Protection Program, and be given new identities, with supporting paperwork.

It has to be recalled that in Italy some pentiti have invented stories, in order to obtain reductions in their own punishment. A famous case regarded the popular TV anchorman Enzo Tortora, who was accused of cocaine trafficking by a pentito. Tortora was imprisoned for years before being cleared, and (perhaps because of the emotional stress of his imprisonment) developed cancer and died soon after the case was finally solved.

Cultural acceptance

In southern-Italian communities where the mafia has a strong grip, becoming a pentito is tantamount to a death sentence. Tommaso Buscetta, for example, has had all of his family exterminated. This type of thought is normally found in degraded suburbs or poor areas where people live on the borderline of legality, or beyond. Since the pentito himself is physically protected by the police, retribution on his family is common; therefore, when there are rumours of a mafioso collaborating with the police, the family usually condemns that in order to avoid retaliation.

Abuse of the term

It is often pointed out that the correct term should be collaboratori di giustizia, or "justice collaborators". The word pentito implies a moral judgement that is considered inappropriate for the courts of justice to make.

Criticism

In Italy, pentiti have come under criticism because of the favours they receive and because they would tend to invent stories in order to receive benefits. Criticism often comes from politicians who criticise prosecutors working on mafia more often than the mafia itself. Laws have been passed that bar pentiti to obtain substantial benefits unless their revelations are deemed new material, and lead to concrete results; there have been proposals to accept revelations only for six months, after which their revelations could not be used in court.

This has had the effect of reducing the appeal of becoming a pentito, since a single mafia associate does not know whether his knowledge will be useful to the prosecutors at the time of defection. Defection from mafia in Italy have sharply reduced from the height reached in the early nineties, and results in the fight against mafia have reduced too.