The Times: Italy clamps down on masons after mafia links exposed

The Times, London UK

January 16, 2018

Tom Kington, Rome

Italian politicians will be forced to declare whether they are freemasons under laws being drawn up after revelations that mafia bosses are joining lodges to strike deals with elected officials.

The legislation is being proposed after police raids on the four largest freemasonry orders in Italy discovered 193 mob-linked masons on the orders’ secret membership lists in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy.

The findings were published last month by the Italian parliament’s anti-mafia commission, which alleged that mobsters used secret lodge meetings to do business with politicians and entrepreneurs. Laws proposed by the commission would ban magistrates from joining the masons and compel public officials to say if they are members.

Rosy Bindi, the commission president, said she also hoped to compel masons to…

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