In Palermo, merchants stand up to the Mafia, 35 years after the assassination of Libero Grassi
Thirty-five years after the murder of Libero Grassi, merchants in Palermo continue to refuse to pay the pizzo to the Mafia.
Resistance to Mafia extortion in Palermo, three decades after Grassi's assassination
According to Google News FR — Crime (fr), merchants in Palermo continue to resist the demands of the Mafia, thirty-five years after the assassination of Libero Grassi, a Sicilian businessman killed on 29 August 1991 for publicly refusing to pay the pizzo — the ransom extorted by Cosa Nostra from local businesses.
Grassi had defied the criminal organisation by publishing, in January 1991, an open letter in the Giornale di Sicilia, addressed directly to his extorters. This gesture, rare at the time, resulted in him being abandoned by part of the business world before being shot dead outside his home.
Since then, associations of Palermo merchants have taken up this resistance. The Addiopizzo movement, founded in 2004, brings together hundreds of businesses that publicly display their refusal to give in to extortion, in a city where Cosa Nostra maintains a structural presence.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)