Italy: Union organiser gets funeral 64 years after killed by mafia

Corleone, 24 May (AKI) - A union organiser will be buried Thursday in an Italian state funeral more than six decades after he was killed by the mafia.

Placido Rizzotto's funeral will take place near Palermo in the town of Corleone, made famous worldwide by American movie director Francis Ford Coppola's ''Godfather'' trilogy.

Rizzotto, 34, in 1948 was killed by the mafia from Corleone for his work organising peasant land occupations. The following year his remains went missing amid a probe conducted by military police Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, who would climb to the rank of general only to be shot dead by the mafia in 1982.

The bones identified as Rizzotto's were found in 2009 near where his body was dumped by Corleone mafia boss Luciano Liggio.

Italy's interior minister Annamaria Cancellier, president Giorgio Napolitano. and union leader Susanna Camusso were due to attend the funeral.

"Today we seek justice for the many union organisers killed by the mafia," Camusso, leader of Italy's biggest union told reporters upon her arrival to Corleone.