Businessman didn't know partner was mafioso

USTI NAD LABEM (PDM staff with CTK) 19 August - Rene Slepcik, who owned the Rene&Umberto company with Sicilian mafia boss Luigi Putrone in Usti, had allegedly no idea about the Italian's criminal post, the local issue of the daily Deniky Bohemia (DB) reported yesterday.

Czech police recently detained Putrone, 44, who was sentenced to life in prison in Italy, in Usti. He is the head of an Italian mafia clan of took part in a series of murders, allegedly killing nine people himself.

Slepcik knew Putrone under the name Umberto Bonfiglio. He met the Italian in his night club in Dubi, north Bohemia, five years ago.

"I am no goody-goody, but if I had known what he was I would not have established a company with him after all," Slepcik told the paper.

He noted he regarded the Italian as a good man. "He wanted to live here as a normal man," he said, adding that Putrone frequented local pubs and liked to sit in Italian restaurants.

Slepcik said he used to meet his business partner in a fitness centre. "He [Putrone] did not want to go out with me very often, maybe over my name," Slepcik said, hinting at the fact that his family is well-known in Usti.