Massimo Ciancimino handed in a copy of the document containing the twelve requests made by mafia boss Riina to the State. Prosecutors now have the document. In order to put a stop to the massacres taking place in Italy all twelve points listed in the paper were to be met.
PALERMO – Convictions regarding the maxi – trial of Palermo became definitive in January 1992, this is when Toto’ Riina decided to take revenge against the State. Salvo Lima was killed in March, Giovanni Falcone in May. In order for mafia attacks to cease, the first request to appear in his “paper” is the cancellation of the verdict signed by the Supreme Court.
<1- Revision of the verdict of the maxi – trial > this is what is written at the top of the paper which former corleonese mayor of Palermo Vito Ciancimino came in possesion of. Ciancimino then gave the document to police officials colonel Mario Mori and captain Giuseppe De Donno of the Ros (special department of the italian military police force). The two officials claim that their visits to Ciancimino were meant to wangle news that could be useful in capturing fugitives. According to Massimo Ciancimino (Vito Ciancimino’s son) who is the main witness of this affair, colonel Mori and captain De Donno struck up a real negotiation with his father after the Capaci Massacre and before the massacre of D’ Amelio Street in which Paolo Borsellino lost his life on July 19th 1992. In order to prove his statements, Ciancimino junior, gave, public prosecutors of Palermo a copy of the renowned “paper” containing the twelve requests made by the mafia to the State. All this is taking place now, 17 years after the facts occurred.
A white piece of paper; twelve hand-written points. There is only one spelling mistake in the entire document. The writing does not seem to belong to Riina nor to Bernardo Provenzano. Ciancimino junior, reports to have withdrawn the document himself in a sealed envelope, in a bar in Mondello, from a doctor convicted for mafia, Antonio Cina’. Ciancimino delivers the paper to his father. He then sees the document once more but, this time, it is in the hands of someone called “Mr. Franco” or “Carlo”, a man who was never identified and who either belonged to secret services or another type of institutional apparatus , nonetheless, he participated in the negotiation. The intermediary tells Vito Ciancimino to go ahead. The ex mayor orders his son to set up an appointment with Mori and De Donno. The document is handed over to the two police officials. Ciancimino provides proof of this by stating that – the original paper has an attached note that was written by his father, it reads: . Magistrates have not yet come in possession of the original document. For the moment they are studying the information written in the copy, which was sent to Massimo Ciancimino by fax. . Following the maxi – trial of Palermo the mafia was concerned about: abolishing a law called because it guarantees
At point 5, another topic appears, a topic that Cosa Nostra bosses would discuss years later as a possible solution to escape life sentences: . The reference clearly cites a law made for ex – terrorists. It seems strange that such talk was already taking place in 1992 when mafia bosses were all fugitives, however, this is what is written in the paper. At point 7, following the request for house arrest to be granted to prisoners who are 70 years old and over, mafia demands the closure of special jails. Their attention then turns to relationships with family members: demands span from detention close to the family home, to the removal of censorship on mail, to the elimination of prevention measures for wives and children. Mafia then suggests that arrests should take place only if the person is caught in the moment that he or she is committing a crime, as if an arrest could be made during a mafia meeting or immediately following a murder, never in any other case. Something along the lines of immunity for mafia bosses, the same kind of immunity given to members of Parliament.
The last point deals with a totally different subject: . Suddenly, the attention shifts from the prisoner’s life conditions (and those of their relatives) and criminal code reforms to economic matters such as tax abolition on fuel. The document provided by Massimo Ciancimino was accompanied by a series of other handwritten papers, which belonged to his father. The papers contain a number of topics, some of which are about political program matters and, others, which discuss the elimination of the monopoly on tobacco. Nicola Mancino and Virginio Rognonis’ names also appear in the documents. The first became Internal Affairs Minister on July 1st 1992, the second was Defense Minister up until that date. Prosecutors consider the presence of Rognoni’s name to be a clue that shows how the negotiation between State and mafia bosses (which took place through the former mayor of Palermo) began after the massacre of Capaci and before the one in D’Amelio Street. It is likely that Paolo Borsellino died because he had become an obstacle, an obstacle to be removed at all costs.
Giovanni Bianconi (Il Corriere della Sera, 16 ottobre 2009)
Be First to Comment