Lirio Abbate is special correspondent of the Italian weekly L’Espresso. He previously wrote for ANSA, the main Italian press agency, and the Italian daily La Stampa. He is an acknowledged expert on organised crime and in particular on the Mafia. He is the author of La Mafia che ho conosciuto (1996) and co-author with Peter Gomez of I Complici. Tutti gli uomini di Bernardo Provenzano da Corleone al Parlamento (2007). He currently lives under police protection following threats to his life as a result of the publication of I Complici.