Italy Sacks Council In Sicilian 'Godfather' Town

ROME, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Augst,2016) - Italy's government has disbanded the local council in Corleone because of suspected mafia infiltration of the Sicilian town which helped inspire Francis Coppola's "Godfather" series. The real-life birthplace of some of Italy's most notorious mobsters, the hilltop town near Palermo gained international fame as the hometown of Vito Corleone, the fictional New York mafia don portrayed by Marlon Brando and Robert de Niro in Coppola's films based on Mario Puzo's novel. Despite its long association with organised crime, it is the first time the council in Corleone has been dissolved on the orders of the central government under a procedure that has been applied to more than 200 Italian municipal authorities since the early 1990s.

Orders placing Corleone and three other southern Italian towns under the control of government-appointed commissioners pending fresh elections were approved by Italy's centre-left government late Wednesday. In Corleone's case, the move follows an Interior Ministry inspection launched in June that uncovered evidence of relatives of mafia figures being hired by the council and anomalies in the running of a municipal dairy. The probe was triggered by a long-running criminal investigation into a previous administration's award of a contract for a new public building in the town.