Pentito

Tommaso Buscetta (with sunglasses), the first important pentito of the Sicilian Mafia, escorted into a court of law.

Pentito (Italian: [penˈtiːto], lit. 'repentant'; f. pentita, pl. pentiti) is a colloquial term to designate people known in Italian criminal procedure terminology as collaborators of justice (collaboratori di giustizia), i.e. former members of criminal organizations who decided to collaborate with a public prosecutor. The judicial category of pentiti was originally created in the 1970s to combat violence and terrorism during the period of left- and right-wing terrorism known as the Years of Lead. During the 1986–87 Maxi Trial and after the testimony of Tommaso Buscetta, the term was increasingly applied to former members of organized crime in Italy who had abandoned their organization and started helping investigators.

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