Roberto Spada, brother of Ostia
clan chief Carmine, was arrested Thursday after attacking a RAI
State broadcaster TV crew in the coastal town near Rome on
Tuesday.
Spada is under investigation for grievous bodily harm and
private violence with the aggravating factor of acting in a
mafia context, judicial sources said.
Spada, who was caught on film attacking the crew, denies the
charges.
Interior Minister Marco Minniti said the arrest "is proof
that there are no no-go areas in Italy".
Minniti thanked Rome prosecutors and the Carabinieri for
arresting Spada.
Spada headbutted a journalist and broke his nose and attacked
a cameraman with a stick, interrupting an interview on the Spada
clan's alleged relations with self-styled Fascist group
CasaPound.
CasaPound, which won 9% of the vote in a Sunday municipal
election in Ostia, has denied any links with the clan.
Spada allegedly told the crew "don't come around here any
more.
"I'll take you car and you'll see you won't find it any
more".
Prosecutors said the mafia aggravating factor consisted in
"showing a conduct able to exert on passive subjects that
particular coercion and consequent intimidation that is peculiar
to mafia organisations".
The RAI reporter who was attacked said Thursday that he won't
let the assault stop him.
"A broken nose can stop us," said Daniele Piervincenzi, who
was headbutted by Spada when asking about possible links between
the local Mob and CasaPound.
"Naturally we are shaken, both me and (filmmaker) Edoardo
Anselmi. He bravely defended the recording of the video camera
during the attack and I'm grateful to him.
"We'll both keep doing our job with the same dedication as
before," added the journalist, who works for Rai2's program Nemo
Nessuno Escluso.
The RAI crew was in Ostia to report on the outcome of local
municipal elections on Sunday, where CasaPound scored its
unexpectedly high 9%.
Investigators said Thursday they were weighing whether
Spada's attack happened in a "mafia context".
The probe has been assigned to anti-mafia prosecutors,
judicials sources said.
The incident occurred in a town whose council had been
dissolved for mafia infiltration and Ostia is "clan land", the
sources said.
The vice president of CasaPound, Simone Di Stefano, on
Thursday urged prosecutors to probe the far-right group "to see
if there are criminal ties between us and the Spadas".
He also called for a parliamentary inquiry to "bring out the
whole truth on this affair".
He said "we are requesting swift and public probes, and
that the results should be diffused to public opinion".
Di Stefano denied all links to the Spada clan.
Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi said she felt "horror" after
reading social-media comments defending and praising Spada.
"I felt horror, because all the comments defended him, no one
voiced sympathy with the victim, this was a further element of
horror," she said.
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