Vito Roberto Palazzolo, who now goes by the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko, recently visited South Africa and tells South African government ‘stop harassing me, I’m a citizen’.
One of the most controversial figures to have called South Africa home and who was suspected of having links to the Mafia, underworld figures as well as high-ranking local politicians, has apparently received the green light to enter this country again – which he has done.can reveal that Vito Roberto Palazzolo, who now goes by the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko, recently visited South Africa.
Palazzolo has effectively said his travels were made difficult because Home Affairs deemed him a known fugitive from justice and had declared him a “prohibited person” . This tallies with a document on the Justice Department’s website that suggested he was trying to enter South Africa. Alleged Italian Mafia member Vito Roberto Palazzolo is escorted by Thai prison officers as he arrives for his extradition hearing at the Criminal Court in Bangkok, Thailand, on 29 October 2012. Palazzolo became the focus of police when he was based in the Western Cape. An October 1997 document by policeman Andre Lincoln, who was heading an investigative unit mandated by then president Nelson Mandela, detailed suspicions involving Palazzolo and the Mafia.
Lincoln was subsequently accused of crimes and some of his colleagues were of the view he had improper links to Palazzolo. His family still has business ties to South Africa, where they are involved in the water-bottling industry. One of Palazzolo’s son’s is an active director of La Terra de Luc, an estate in Franschhoek, as well as of the company La Terra de Luc Mineral Water.has established that Palazzolo is still an active director of a company that has a registered address in George in the Western Cape. He previously resigned from several other local companies.
“Notwithstanding this troubled relationship”, the judgment said, Palazzolo was granted South African citizenship “by automatic naturalisation” in January 1995. In 2009, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Rome dismissed Palazzolo’s attempt to have the matter overturned, and this led to fresh extradition attempts to have him sent to Italy.
He ended up serving seven years, and was released on parole in 2019. This later lapsed, leaving him free to leave Italy.amaBhungane reported in June 2019 that Italian authorities were eyeing Palazzolo’s assets – this included assets in South Africa.
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