The Repentance of Sandokan: A Turning Point in Camorra's History

“The news of Schiavone's repentance was overwhelming for me. Years ago, I had invited him to repent, telling him that his power was now in crisis,” comments Roberto Saviano on the news of Francesco Schiavone's repentance. Saviano, a great connoisseur of the business and criminal world of the Camorra, first recounted it in the famous novel “Gomorra”. “Sandokan is the leader of the Casalesi clan, which has been governed for more than a decade by a diarchy, with Schiavone and Bidognetti,” explains the Neapolitan writer. “His repentance, if genuine, could make a difference. He knows half a century of the history of Camorra's power. His clan was among the very few to have directly a representative in the government, the Undersecretary of Economy Cosentino, who is serving prison time for this.” “It is necessary to understand if he really wants to cooperate, because so far what his wife and children have said does not seem to have made a difference,” he emphasizes. “The great fear is that he has found a moment of balance, well aware that there is no real opposition from the state to criminal organizations. I mean economic, entrepreneurial opposition, because Schiavone has made a difference in the history of organized crime as both an entrepreneur and killer. Not just a white-collar criminal, he was capable of killing and investing. These are the characteristics that make an individual a leader.” “Will he really cooperate?” the writer still wonders. “Will he do as Antonio Iovine, who, as far as we know so far, has told us things we already knew, or will he reveal new possibilities for knowledge? Will he help us find the money, where it is hidden, in which offshore paradises? Will he reveal the relationships with business and politics?” “Sandokan is not anti-state, never make this mistake. Sandokan is a part of the state. The Camorra is a part of the state. There exists a part of the state that is allied with them and a part that opposes them. Then there is the largest and most varied, the equidistant one.” “In 26 years of hard prison, silence has guaranteed him to continue being a king,” concludes Saviano. “Now he is certainly no longer the boss, even if he should tell little he will no longer be the boss, but he may have chosen to speak to circumvent the life imprisonment without parole that blocks the possibility of leaving prison even after serving 30 years. After 26 years in prison, either he repents or dies in jail. He had decided to die in jail, but something made him change his mind. The possibility of saving his family or a very fragile state to which it will be enough to say some nonsense to be able to regain free life? Only time and attention to these dynamics will make us understand.