Caltanissetta – Bernardo Provenzano, the boss of bosses of the mafia organization called Cosa Nostra was in tight contact with senator Marcello Dell’Utri. This is what Massimo Ciancimino, the deceased former mayor of Palermo’s son, told magistrates of Palermo and Caltanissetta, the same magistrates who are investigating the massacres of Capaci and Via D’Amelio as well as the presumed “negotiation” which took place between the State and mafia during those years.
Massimo Ciancimino spoke to magistrates yesterday and explained in detail the “sense” of a typewritten note from Bernardo Provenzano to his father Don Vito Ciancimino. Don Vito was then under house arrest in Rome, following the massacres of Capaci and Via D’Amelio. “Dear engineer – wrote Provenzano- I received the “recipe”, we must meet at the usual place, the cemetery, to clear a few matters. We spoke with our senator friend about a certain issue, they had a meeting and they all agree”.
According to Massimo Ciancimino, the person who Provenzano calls “senator friend” is Marcello Dell’Utri. The “recipe” which Provenzano received from Vito Ciancimino was the request made by Cosa Nostra to a number of political exponents to accommodate both the“mafiosi” in jail as well as their assets. In exchange, the mafia, would put an end to the massacres of 1992/93, massacres which culminated in mafia attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan.
However, the last “pizzino” (Pizzino (pl. pizzini) is an Italian language word derived from Sicilian language equivalent pizzinu. Despite it generically meaning “small piece of paper”, the word is now widely used to refer to small slips of paper that the Sicilian mafia uses for high-level communications) sent from Provenzano to Vito Ciancimino ( the note which speaks of an appointment and of “our senator friend”) was delivered in year 2000, explained Massimo Ciancimino. This confirms that the “negotiation” between mafia and State, which began with Riina and Provenzano’s cooperation, continued with the help of the Graviano brothers Filippo and Giuseppe. The negotiation not only continued, it was never interrupted.
Massimo Ciancimino also explained the meaning of the note sent from Bernardo Provenzano to his father. The “matter” cited in the note, was a referral to a political debate which was taking place during those years. The debate was about amnesty for “mafiosi” who were in prison but also concerned an article of italian law named 41 bis (The article 41-bis of the Italian Prison Administration Act allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations. Currently it is used against people imprisoned for particular crimes: Mafia involvement; drug-trafficking; homicide; aggravated robbery and extortion; kidnapping; importation, buying, possession or cession of huge amounts of drugs; and crimes committed for terrorism or for subversion of the constitutional system. [1] It is suspended only when a prisoner co-operates with the authorities, when a court annuls it, or when a prisoner dies.). This article had always been an issue for the mafia. They felt “responsible” for the restrictive measures taken by the State following the massacres of 1992/93, therefore, one of their goals was to have the 41 bis abolished. Justice collaborator Gaspare Spatuzza indicated Berlusconi and Dell’Utri as the Graviano brothers’ “contacts”: after all, certain decisions had caused controversy within prison walls. Prisoners did not agree with the war – like strategy adopted by Cosa Nostra.
Today, Massimo Ciancimino is no longer afraid to “discuss details about important people”. This is why he reveals that Bernardo Provenzano’s words are directly referred to Marcello Dell’Utri. Not only! Ciancimno goes further and unveils business agreements between the mafia and Dell’Utri who is also a political exponent of Berlusconi’s party Pdl. Mafia bosses Buscemi and Bonura had invested in Silvio Berlusconi’s company: “Edilnord”. Massimo Ciancimino reminds magistrates that his own father had been a “consultant” in one of Marcello Dell’Utri’s first business firms, the: “Venchi Unica”. Businessman Filippo Maria Rapisarda, who was one of the main witnesses for prosecutors in the trial which saw Dell’Utri sentenced in first degree to 9 years of imprisonment for mafia crimes, was a shareholder in the senator’s company.At the moment, the Court of Appeal is still working on the case. Next Friday, in Torino, justice collaborator Gaspare Spatuzza will be testifying in front of judges.