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PALERMO, Italy : Right-wing Sicilian leader Salvatore Cuffaro succumbed to pressure Saturday, announcing he would resign from office after being sentenced to prison for collusion with people linked to the Mafia.
"I prefer the path of humility. I am doing this so as not to betray my ideals, for my family and as a final act of respect toward the Sicilians," Cuffaro, the regional president of Sicily, announced in Palermo.
He also said he sensed a "growing hostility" toward him on the part of regional lawmakers.
The announcement represents a reversal for Cuffaro, who earlier said he would hang on to his post and appeal his five-year prison sentence of January 18.
Since then, leftist lawmakers have demanded his resignation, although Cuffaro is still supported by conservatives -- notably by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Nonetheless, Sicily's right praised his resignation, saying it brought honour to both Cuffaro and to politics in general.
Still under investigation for other Mafia-related crimes, Cuffaro was not found guilty of outright collusion with the organisation but the court concluded he acted in favour of several people sentenced for Mafia crimes and committed breaches of confidentiality.
The court also barred Cuffaro from exercising public office, but the sentence can only take effect after a final, post-appeals verdict.
In separate incidents involving organised crime in the Naples area, police said Saturday they had arrested six people on suspicion of extortion and found a car bomb.
The six arrested were alleged to have extorted 100,000 euros (147,000 dollars) from businesses building a Naples shopping centre on behalf of French retailer Auchan.
Several members of the Naples' Camorra mafia figured among those arrested, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.
The car laden with 800 grammes (1,760 pounds) of explosives was discovered overnight in an industrial zone of the southern Italian metropolis.
ANSA quoted a police official, Vittorio Pisani, as saying that the bomb could have destroyed a whole construction site if it had gone off. He said the Camorra had used similar intimidation tactics twice in 1998.
- AFP /ls
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