Francesco Saverio Pavone (25 March 1944 – 16 March 2020) was the Italian magistrate, chief of the Procura di Venezia for several years.

Biography

Born in

Taranto Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label= Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important com ...

on 25 March 1944, he worked for several years as a clerk of the court, where he had won a competitive examination in the late 1970s. In 1980, he took up service in the courthouse in Venice, first in the role of judge in the court and then as prosecutor. In the lagoon city he dealt with investigations on organized crime and kidnappings. In 1988, Pavone's "pool" (group of magistrates in the same case) brought to light the complete organization chart of the

Mala del Brenta The Nuova Mala del Brenta (), also known as Mafia veneta ("Venetian Mafia") or Mafia del Piovese, is an organized crime group based in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, north-eastern Italy. The criminal organization's structure is like a ...

which was wreaking havoc in Veneto, investigations that led in 1994 to the trial that dismantled the Mala del Brenta, with

Felice Maniero Felice Maniero (born September 2, 1954) is a former Italian crime boss who was the head of the Mala del Brenta, a criminal organisation based in the region of Veneto throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His nickname is ''Faccia d'Angelo'' ("Angel Face ...

sentenced to 33 years for mafia association. Francesco Saverio Pavone lived under escort from 1989 to 2006, having received threats by the

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...

and members of the Mala del Brenta. In 2016, he retired as chief prosecutor of

Belluno Belluno (; lld, Belum; vec, Belùn) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites region ...

. On 16 March 2020, Pavone died in the intensive care unit of the Mestre Angelo hospital at the age of 75, after testing positive to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which caused him serious lung problems.

References

1944 births 2020 deaths People from Taranto Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Veneto Italian magistrates 20th-century jurists 21st-century jurists Italian jurists {{Italy-law-bio-stub