On 10 February 1986 the State arrives in Palermo fit a built in record time, cutting-edge equipment and technological security measures never seen before. It’s a cold winter morning and opens the first major trial of Cosa Nostra. A creature of Falcone and Borsellino had chiseled 750,000 pages of indictment against 474 defendants. Palermo turns. In the area near the port, beside the old prison dell’Ucciardone, it born the classroom bunker for 638 days will process the Dome. It is called maxi-trial. The so-called “you granted”, many of which enemies of Falcone and Borsellino , define a legal monster and attack the setting of judges. Certainly is the largest trial ever held against organized crime in Italy
The trial opens with great tension. The Assize Court presided over by Alfonso Giordano , judge assessors Pietro Grasso (now president of the Senate) is required to value 438 charges against him; 221 are held and 194 fugitives. Others are on the loose, like Ignazio Salvo , which represents the political and business side of the Mafia. The murders for which shall have 90 and 310 victims. The trial lasts 21 months and 35 days of deliberation. In the end the judges inflict 19 life sentences to which are added 343 convictions and eleven billion 400 million pounds in fines. For the first time the leaders of Cosa Nostra are sentenced to life imprisonment. Before then why the boss had been sent to life imprisonment. On the threshold of the millennium, at last, it is the state challenge to Cosa Nostra. Against “the new mafia” are put in hyper-new structures. Against the largest organized crime, a well organized judiciary. Against Cosa Nostra, which until then had always been successful, the spaceship that comes in 21 months kicks to the floor the Dome.
The large bunker disrupts the surrounding area, some windows on the road leading to the entrance of the classroom were walled. Another was capped with a bulletproof plate seven centimeters thick. The outer perimeter classroom policemen are deployed on a war footing. A helicopter flies over the area. Palermo is divided between the initiatives in support of the judges and a part of the city sided with the mob. He begins to circulate among students of the insult schools: “A headlamps’ u Buscetta!”, Not a spy, the infamous.
In the restaurants are exhibited signs that read: “This is not serves Outline, “which is another contributor to justice.
the day in which the Spaceship-bunker opens its doors to the public opens with the title, emblematic and absurd, printed on the front page of the newspaper city: “Silence, enters the court” . As if to say: Now shut up, no one speak. Maybe he wanted to be yet another appeal all’omertà? Instead it is time to talk and luckily help to do the more than 600 journalists from all over the world who flock into the space with cameras, recorders and notebooks. A computer to record documents. Another device microfilma them. A camera inside a rotating sphere framed and photographed one by one. A metal detector controls who accesses. armored doors and hushed atmosphere.
The Spaceship swallows all and opens in its icy colorful splendor of green. A draw was the Roman architect Francesco Martuscelli. It is a semi-octagonal and thirty cages, arranged in a semicircle in front of the judges of the Court, can accommodate 450 people. The last three on the right are protected by armored glass, planned to host the repentant. On all vibrating spherical cameras, dangling from the ceiling, electronic eyes hung on long stems that can zoom in on the face of the individual accused. Thirty years ago, a great novelty.
Yes, at the time the Spaceship you dizzy with wonder and, at the same time, crept shivering with fear. Because the opening of the trial then brought back tragic truth. The ancient truth of the blood that the Mafia did pay to Sicily honest. The truth of the crimes, of violence, of suffering, of fear that Cosa Nostra has made grief to those who have fought. The Mafia has murdered the local government leaders. Opposition leader. The prefect. The head of the anti-crime police. The leaders of the hunt for fugitives. Two leaders of the prosecutor. A head of Education. The coroner. And judges, policemen, police officers, journalists, repent, repent of the family. All disappeared in a brutal war that had lasted for years.
In the classroom there are defendants who protest their innocence and those who scream against the photographers because they will not be taken up . On the right side of the Spaceship we are the victims of this war, the civil parties. They see so many faces that say nothing, unknown relatives of forgotten dead. Dead but made the history of Sicily who did not bow to the mafia. There are also familiar faces.
The mayor Leoluca Orlando (still mayor of Palermo) that constitute civil party for the city. Nando Dalla Chiesa with sisters Rita and Simona, the mother and brother of Emanuela Setti Carraro. Excited but compounds the families of other victims as the widow of the assistant chief Giorgio Boris Giuliano, his son Alexander and the brothers of the murdered policeman; there is also the widow of Professor Paolo Giaccone, director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine. The family of Joseph Di Lavore, the driver of the Mercedes with which had to be transferred Alfio Ferlito, to kill which the Santapaola clan performed a massacre in Palermo.
The area reserved for the public is semi-deserted, and he is recognized in the front row the director Francesco Rosi.
The boss comes out of the cage 23 Luciano Leggio . Blue suit and white sneakers. The Cuban cigar between his fingers. And that air enigmatic alter-over. In the cell next door there is Pippo Calo , the cashier of the Mafia, elegant coat over his shoulders.
The trial goes live on April 3 with Buscetta. It is presented in the classroom and wearing a broken and dark glasses. It is surrounded by eight of carabinieri and police officers, and every step is accompanied by background noise. In cages all seem respectful of this man. She sits at the center of the classroom before the Court. From this moment he tells publicly the secrets of Cosa Nostra. And the judges believe his words. The comparison with Pippo Calo is one of the historical pages of the “maxi”, because despite the attacks and provocations of the cashier of the Mafia, Buscetta does not lose composure. And from the comparison comes out the winner.
When the shift Outline, his story is impetuous and often come from the cages protests and screams for his answers. Contour knows how to provoke the wrath of his former cronies who teases during deposition and when it entered the room or when it comes out. During the trial the murder of a 11 year old boy, Claudio Domino, disrupts the defensive strategy of the accused. The little victim was killed with an execution, a method which would have the mark of the Mafia.
John Bonta , brother of Stephen, the boss who in the seventies would offer own protection to Silvio Berlusconi in Milan, from behind bars took the floor in the classroom: “we are saddened and grieved for the massacre of the innocent Claudio Domino.” In the first person plural, goodness for the first time since the beginning of the process admits the existence of a collective entity, hitherto denied. Just before the Court comes into closed session, to the applause of the defendants and lawyers standing, a woman’s voice echoed in the classroom: “Everyone infamous are repentant.” Before the formation of the Court to enter in private asked for and obtained the word Michele Greek, “the pope”, considered the head of the commission of Cosa Nostra, which in previous months had told the judges: “Violence is not part of my dignity “.
Now that the Court is launching a veiled threat :” I want to make a wish: I wish you all peace, because peace is the peace, the serenity and of consciousness. Serenity is the fundamental basis of the judge. I will hope that this peace be with you the rest of your life. ” On 16 December 1987 comes the judgment. President Jordan takes an hour and a half to read names, convictions and articles of the code. It is the first major blow to the Mafia. Decided with “peace of mind.”
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