THE sons of the Sicilian mafia`s jailed “boss of all bosses”, Bernardo Provenzano, on Monday made an emotional appeal for what one called “the right to live like any other member of the public”.

“We have lived, and continue to live, as if we were Big Brother contestants,” said Angelo Provenzano. “We have been actors in the biggest reality show on Cosa Nostra.”

He complained bitterly of police surveillance and media pressure. His younger brother, 26 year-old Francesco, said “Every activity I get ready to set up is scotched because it is [defined by the law as] a `product of the laundering of illicitly obtained assets`. I ask myself, when will I be able to have a life of my own.”

As a language and literature graduate, he said he had won a scholarship to teach Italian in a Germany university. But he added “They took it away from me because someone said I could not represent Italy abroad. As if I were the ambassador.”

His elder brother, aged 33, added “We always try to make ourselves known by our Christian names, and not by our surname. I always introduce myself as Angelo and only if it is necessary do I add the rest.”

The two young men denied they had been instructed by their father to give the interview, carried by two Italian dailies, La Repubblica and La Stampa. But police and prosecutors can be expected to pore over every word in a search for possible coded messages — all the more so since Angelo Provenzano used the interview to play down the crimes of the mafia. A spokesman for relatives of the mafia`s victims said his declarations of love and respect for his father were “an insult”.

Bernardo Provenzano was arrested in 2006 after 43 years on the run. His elder son spent the first 16 years of his life also in hiding. “I was born and brought up in captivity,” said Angelo, who refused to discuss his childhood on the run.

In 1992, the boys and their mother returned to their home town, Corleone, when “my growing-up began”, he said. The son of the “capo di tutti i capi” acknowledged he had found it “difficult” to integrate with the rest of society. At least as difficult was the surveillance to which the family were subjected after 1992. “They monitored every setting, every space — the living room, the car, the bathroom, the windows,” he said. “Whether they still monitor us, I don`t know. We certainly behave as if we were [under surveillance].” He suggested that behind the mafia`s operations lay manoeuvres by the authorities, and claimed two of the organisation`s most famous victims, the investigating magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, had been sacrificed “on the altar of raison d`etat” (national interest).

But he admitted that he had “curbed his curiosity” and had never asked his mother direct questions about his father. “I concede certain mitigating circumstances to my father”, he said, “so I have nothing to admonish him for.”

The brother of a journalist murdered by the mob said in an open letter to the Provenzano sons “There is no need to renounce your father, but [only] to disown his role and condemn decisively his criminal actions.”

— The Guardian, London