ITALY:A 57-year-old woman was in jail in Sicily last night accused of handing over her son to the Mafia to be murdered. Her daughter was also in custody, accused of the same offence. Police said they attended the mobsters' "summit" at which his fate was planned.
Sebastiano Mazzeo, the 20-year-old son of a Cosa Nostra godfather, disappeared in 1989 after it became known he was co-operating with the authorities. His body was never found, and according to mafiosi who turned state's evidence, it was chopped into bits with a machete.
A supergrass had pointed a finger at Mazzeo's mother, Gaetana Conti, in 1991. But the case against her was shelved for lack of corroboration. In March, however, a second witness came forward with a version of events that coincided with the first.
Sebastiano Mazzeo himself testified to investigators after being arrested as a teenager for robbery and attempted murder. Whether he did so as a ploy or because of disgust with the Mafia has never been established. After offering to co-operate Mazzeo was freed under police protection. But he vanished on October 7th, 1989.
But the men who have accused his mother said Sebastiano's protestation of "innocence" was disbelieved by the Mafia clan his family led. They told prosecutors that, at a meeting in a villa near Catania attended by his mother and sister, Concetta Mazzeo, it was agreed he should be killed.