Rome - Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino are Italy's most
famous martyrs in the decades-long fight against the Mafia: the two
anti-Mafia prosecutors were killed 25 years ago in separate bomb
attacks that jolted the country into taking the mob more seriously.
But the run-up to commemorations for Borsellino, who was slain in
Palermo, Sicily, on July 19, 1992, has been marred by public
recognition that early investigations into his murder led to a
massive miscarriage of justice.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal of Catania cleared nine people of
murder charges, including six people who had previously been given
life sentences and Vincenzo Scarantino, a man whose false confession
got them on the dock.
Scarantino, a small-time criminal, spoke to police under duress, and
ended up with an 18-year prison sentence. His accusations were later
proved wrong in 2008 by another Mafia turncoat, which led to a review
of the case.
Scarantino and the others were freed in 2011, but their convictions
for Borsellino's slaughter were still valid until this week's ruling.
They are now eligible for compensation as victims of a miscarriage of
justice, but a separate court has to review their case before this
can happen. In the Catania trial, the prosecution presented public
apologies to them - a very unusual gesture.
"I think that this affair is the most serious - and still very murky
- in recent Italian history," Enrico Deaglio, a journalist who has
written extensively on the botched investigations on Borsellino's
death, said after Thursday's verdict.
Deaglio and others suspect that police and magistrates wanted
scapegoats for the murder and avoided more credible, but politically
sensitive leads. Trials against other suspects are still pending, but
many fear the real culprits may never be found out.