MARIANNE MERTEN, Cape Town | Friday 11.30am.
THE fraud case against high-flying mafioso Vito Palazzolo was postponed on Friday morning in the Cape Town Regional Court until February 11 next year.
Palazzolo, out on R500000 bail, was arrested earlier this month by the elite Scorpions police unit for fraud relating to false information he gave when applying in 1994 for a South African identity document.
Dressed in a dark suit, Palazzolo sat quietly without facial expressions, speaking only once to reply “yes” when asked by the magistrate if he understood the postponement.
The low key appearance took an hour and was only attended by reporters.
The department of home affairs last year launched an investigation into how Palazzolo obtained his South African citizenship after the Federal Bureau of Investigation named him as a senior member of the Sicilian mafia.
Palazzolo entered South Africa illegally in the 1980s and was given South African citizenship in 1995 in spite of appearing on Interpol’s most wanted list.
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