GELA - Rocco Greco, a 57-year-old entrepreneur and businessman from Sicily who rebelled against Mafia bosses, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. After facing accusations of having relations with the mafia, Greco had been acquitted by the court given that he was in facta symbol of the fight against the racket on the Gela border.

 “The judge had reiterated that Rocco Greco had been a victim of the mafia, not a business partner of the bosses,” said his son Francesco Greco.

 However, his sentence of acquittal was not enough. Last October, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini denied Greco’s firm, Cosiam SRL, inscription onto the white list for reconstruction work after the earthquake in central Italy.

 Greco previously hit headlines in 2007 for his revolt against the racket and for having the courage to report his extortioners. Greco not only denounced the mafia bosses of Stidda and Cosa nostra, but also convinced seven other entrepreneurs take similar action.

 “The suicide of Rocco Greco, the entrepreneur who symbolises the fight against the racket on the Gela border, is a blow to the honesty of Italy that shows how the Interior Minister is without a guide, the minister who should have protected Rocco and who abandoned him. Rocco Greco had been stopped in his attempts to rebel against the racket imposed by the mafia, preventing him, in fact, from working,” declared a note from Angelo Bonelli, National President of the Federation of the Greens, and M5S member Claudia Mannino.

 They also questioned why Salvini “does not fulfil his role as Interior Minister dealing with the safety of Italian citizens,” and “prevents good citizens from working honestly.”

 “We ask that the Cosiam SRL, a company now managed by Rocco's son Francesco Greco, is immediately included in the white list for reconstruction work after the earthquake in central Italy. This is so it can take on the 50 workers Greco was forced to dismiss due to the inadequacy of Salvini,” concluded Bonelli and Mannino.

if