Unexpected twist in the case of Italian marines fishermen shooting incident

[Kamikaze Pilot]

There has been an unexpected twist in the case of Italian marines fishermen shooting on Indian coast. Spiritual leader Pope Francis has prevailed upon Italy not to interfere in this shooting incident affair. The pope managed to convince Italy’s government as well as public to refrain from using unfair means to secure the marines’ freedom as India’s stand on the issue appears to be legitimate. Pope Francis was successful in effecting a change of heart in the minds of Italian populace. The below event was organized to influence the Italian public’s opinion. The pope argued: If Italians can be killed by Italians, why isn’t it possible that the Italian marines killed the Indian strangers?

Pope tells Italian mafia to stop evil or prepare for hell

Reuters | March 22, 2014, 15.03 pm IST

Pope Francis, in an annual ceremony held to remember the hundreds of innocent people murdered by the Italian mafia, made a solemn plea for mobsters to change or else "end up in hell".

The mafia continues to plague much of southern Italy: just on Monday, a four-year-old boy was shot dead, along with his mother and her boyfriend, near the southern city of Taranto in a suspected mob hit.

At the end of an emotional ceremony in Rome in which the relatives of those murdered read the names of about 900 innocent mafia victims, the pope said the mafia "has no pity even for a child".

"You have power and money now from much dirty business and many mafia crimes - it is blood money and blood power, and you can't take it with you to the afterlife," Francis said in a Rome parish church packed with almost 900 relatives, many of whom held pictures of their slain loved ones.

"Men and women of the mafia, please change your lives. Convert. Stop doing evil ... There's still time to stay out of hell. That's what's waiting for you if you stay on this path."

Francis's words recalled those of Pope John Paul, who in 1993 angrily called on mafiosi to "repent, because one day you will face the judgment of God".

The pope's stand is important because, according to investigators, mob bosses often seek to establish close ties to local priests as a way to show that their authority is recognised even by the Church.

It is the first time a pope has attended the annual event - now in its 19th year - which is always held on the first day of spring "as a sign of hope and rebirth," said Turin priest don Luigi Ciotti, who founded the anti-mafia group Libera, which organises the ceremony.

"My mother lost her life in the name of democracy, in the name of freedom, and for her commitment to civil society," said Viviana Matrangola, the daughter of Renata Fonte, a city council member in the small southern town of Nardo who was shot to death by the mafia in 1984.

Organised crime controls almost all economic and criminal activity in Calabria, Sicily and parts of Campania and Apulia, and it has greatly extended its influence in Rome and Milan in the past two decades.

Italy's main crime groups - Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, and the Camorra from around the southern city of Naples - have a joint annual turnover of 116 billion euros, according to a United Nations estimate.

The mob continues to use violence and threats to keep its grip on the territory. Threats against local government officials have risen 66 percent since 2010, when the figures were first collected, according to a report published on Friday.

The most popular means of intimidation used by the mafia is setting fire to officials' cars, while threatening letters - also by Facebook or email - is the second most common method.

41 local administrators have been assassinated by the mafia over the past century, said Avviso Pubblico, the anti-mafia group that collected the data, and 243 city governments have been dissolved for organised crime infiltration since 1991.

Pope tells Italian Mafia to stop evil or prepare for hell

 

[IndoUS]

Let's just put the case at end, both side know that there will not be any harsh punishment for the two soldiers. The Fisherman families will probably get a check and will be told to walk away since this case has too much politics involved. And more to the point even our own government is spineless and is more in election mode to give any care for the case.