A Mafia extortion victim has been jailed for refusing to help Italian gang-buster cops break the organisation's code of silence. Bar owner Francesco Fallaci, 53 - who was paying off local dons in Milan - is the first victim to be jailed under Italy's tough new 'omerta' laws aimed at cracking Mafia secrecy. Police phone taps recorded him warning another victim who was thinking of asking cops for help saying: "Are you crazy? You cannot speak with police or the clan will do something to you or even to your son." But judges have jailed him pending further investigations or until he starts talking. Judge Giuseppe Gennari said: "We have to punish a conspiracy of silence."

Austrian Times