Thirty years and a number of processes that are difficult to track. Borsellino 1, bis, ter, quater, a review judgment to remedy seven life sentences unjustly inflicted, then the indictment against what has been defined “the most serious misdirection in republican history” and finally the judgment, still in course in the second degree, at the expense of the last superlatant of Cosa Nostra: the boss Matteo Messina Money. Not to mention the appeals and rulings of the Supreme Court. Dozens of sentences that have certainly clarified the role of the mafia in the attack on the judge Paolo Borsellino and to the officers of the escort, but who still leave many questions unanswered: from the responsibilities external to the Cosa Nostra, to the fate of the red diary, the diary on which the judge wrote his secrets, disappeared into thin air, up to the names of the authors of the misdirection of the investigation into the massacre.
A misdirection that, the judges say “there was”, but which remained without guilty after the verdict last Thursday which declared the charges against two of the policemen, accused of having polluted the investigation of the massacre, and acquitted a third agent. Years of judgments without a truth: an all-Italian paradox that, especially in the families of the victims, arouses bitterness and disappointment. But let’s go in order: the first trial for the death of Paolo Borsellino was held in 1994. At the stand, as material executors Vincenzo Scarantinoa small smuggler from Guadagna who had accused himself of the massacre, the boss Savior Prophet, Giuseppe Orofinoowner of the workshop where the 126 used as a car bomb was stuffed with TNT, e Pietro Scotto. In the first instance they were all sentenced to life imprisonment while Scarantino, repentant and accuser of the others, was 18 years old. On appeal, the life sentence was confirmed only for Prophet, Orofino’s sentence was raised to 9 years for aiding and abetting and Scotto was acquitted. Confirmed 18 years in Scarantino. The sentences are final.
The second trial, in which the men of the Cupola and the heads of the Cosa Nostra were accused, ended on March 18, 2004 with 13 life sentences. Life imprisonment was confirmed for Totò Riina, Salvatore Biondino, Pietro Aglieri, Giuseppe Graviano, Carlo Greco, Gaetano Scotto, Francesco Tagliavia. Life imprisonment also for Cosimo Vernengo, Giuseppe La Mattina, Christmas Gambino, Lorenzo Tinnirello, Giuseppe Urso And Gaetano Murana who had been acquitted in the first instance. The sentence became final, but the mafia boss repented Gaspare Spatuzza, who denounced the misdirection of the first investigations committed to the false accusations of Scarantino, led to the suspension of the sentences for Profeta, Scotto, Vernengo, Gambino, La Mattina, Urso and Murana, unjustly accused. Their convictions were overturned at the end of the review held in Catania.
The Borsellino ter trial was concluded, however, in 2006, after the Supreme Court had partially annulled the 2003 sentence of the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Caltanissetta by transferring the file to Catania. Life sentences imposed on Bernardo Provenzano, Pippo Calò, Michelangelo La Barbera, Raffaele and Domenico Ganci, Francesco and Giuseppe Madonia, Giuseppe and Salvatore Montalto, Filippo Graviano, Cristoforo Cannella, Salvatore Biondo the ” short ” and Salvatore Biondo the ” long ”, Giuseppe Farinella, Salvatore Buscemi, Benedetto ” Nitto ” Santapaola, Mariano Agate, Benedetto Spera. The two collaborators of justice Antonino Giuffrè and Stefano Ganci were sentenced to 20 and 26 years of imprisonment respectively.
Three repentants were also sentenced: Salvatore Cancemi (18 years and 10 months), Giovanni Brusca (13 years and 10 months), Giovanbattista Ferrante (16 years and 10 months). The Borsellino quater, on the other hand, became definitive in 2021 and saw two mafia bosses Salvatore Madonia and Vittorio Tutino sentenced to life in prison for massacre and the three false repentants Calogero Pulci (who was ten years old), Francesco Andriotta (9 years and 6 months ) and Vincenzo Scarantino, who left the scene due to the prescription of the charges.
They were all charged with slander. The trial on the misdirection, which would have been hatched through the construction of false repentants like Scarantino, is fresh off the sentence: three investigators who were part of the pool ended up at the bar, again for slander, but aggravated by having favored the mafia. who investigated the massacre: Mario Bo, Fabrizio Mattei and Michele Ribaudo. When the aggravating circumstance fell, slander was prescribed for the first two, while Ribaudo was acquitted.
Source: Ansa
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