President Sergio Mattarella described
the mafia as a "cancer" while stressing that this does not mean
it cannot be beaten on Tuesday, the 31st anniversary of the
murder of anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife and
three of his bodyguards by Cosa Nostra in the 1992 Capaci bomb
attack.
Falcone's friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino was killed two
months later by another huge Cosa Nostra bomb.
"Magistrates like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino
demolished the belief that the mafia was a parallel order,
revealing what the mafia really is - a cancer for the civil
community, a criminal organization that is not invincible in the
slightest, deprived on any honour or dignity," the head of State
said in a message for the anniversary.
"The effort to combat the mafia syndicates must continue with
commitment and increasingly greater determination.
"One of Giovanni Falcone's teachings, that the mafia can be
beaten and is destined to end, always remains with us".
Falcone led the investigation that culminated in the so-called
Maxi Trial in which over 300 people were convicted, in the
process proving that the Sicilian Mafia actually did exist,
something that was not universally accepted at the time.
Falcone and Borsellino were killed in a bombing campaign
launched by Cosa Nostra after the supreme court upheld the Maxi
Trial convictions, making them definitive.
Mattareall is the brother of Piersanti Mattarella, the Sicilian
governor who was murdered by the mafia in 1980.
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