Singer probed for video of mafia initiation rite

Catania, September 9 - A Sicilian 'neomelodic' singer has been placed under investigation for posting a video showing a mafia initiation rite. Leonardo Zappalà, who performs under the name of 'Scarface', showed the burning of a saint's image and the pricking with a knife on the finger or forearm that would-be mafiosi perform to join Cosa Nostra. The video, posted on June 24, has gone viral. Over the years, films and books have made familiar the religious rituals with which budding Mafiosi seal their pacts: the figurines in the background, the blood-stained saint's images that are burned in the hand after a finger is fatefully pricked. Many Italians were skeptical that the film image fully matched reality, but in 1996 leading informant Leonardo Messina confirmed the initiation rite in all its detail: ''The day I became a man of honour they pricked my finger. The blood was used to stain an image of the Madonna which was set alight, burning as I passed it from one hand to another. I was asked to pronounce the formula: 'as paper I burn you, as a saint I adore you: just as this paper burns, so must my flesh burn if I betray Cosa Nostra'.'' Zappalà was already under investigation, along with another neomelodic singer, for insulting late anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino on a RAI state broadcaster show in early June. The postal police obtained a recording of the 'Realiti' show. The probe looked into comments by Zappala' and Niko Pandetta, a relative of jailed mobster Salvatore Pillera. Zappala' said the two mafia-fighting heroes, assassinated in 1992, "knew the consequences of what they were doing". RAI opened an internal probe into the incident too. RAI2 director Carlo Freccero said "we are the most anti-mafia channel there is".