“The negotiation is an invented fairy tale”, the defense asks for the acquittal for General Mori

The negotiation between the state and the mafia “is an invented fairy tale” given “to public opinion” to “distract it from unsavory stories”. While General Mario Mori has been “for years the victim of a media killer” and of a “political-media jurisdiction that is silent in the face of the ‘mafia and contracts’ investigation. Why?”. The lawyer Basilio Milio, historical lawyer of General Mario Mori, speaks for over four hours before the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Palermo, before asking for “acquittal” for the former Arma officer “because the fact does not exist “. A river harangue, with a short pause, in the bunker classroom of the Pagliarelli prison in Palermo, to say that the negotiation between pieces of the state and mafia bosses “never existed”. And that General Mario Mori and Colonel Giuseppe De Donno asked for the interlocution of Vito Ciancimino “as part of an info-investigative activity for the capture of fugitives”, as “the acquittal sentence of the former minister Calogero Mannino also says. “. “Other than negotiation …”, repeats the lawyer. Addressing directly to the Palermo Court of Assizes of Appeal, chaired by Angelo Pellino, the lawyer Basilio Milio, said: “You must re-establish the truth also for judges Falcone and Borsellino and for those who died to fight the mafia”. And to the popular judges: “Here you are colleagues of Falcone and Borsellino, remember that”. Then Milio still remembers the sentence pronounced by Paolo Borsellino on July 18, 1992, the day before being killed in the via D’Amelio massacre, when he said to his wife, Agnese: “It will not be the mafia that will kill me but my colleagues and others who will allow “. And he also remembers the phrase said by Borsellino in the presence of his colleagues, Alessandra Camassa and Massimo Russo who worked with him: “A friend betrayed me”. “Borsellino could not refer to the Carabinieri”, Milio says again. In the interrogation report of July 14, 2009, Alessandra Camassa, now president of the Court of Marsala, had told about that episode for the first time, specifying that Borsellino’s outburst was subsequent to some questions that she and her colleague Russo had asked him about the dangers to which he exposed himself among other things by taking an interest in investigations relating to the Capaci massacre. And at the trial he said in the courtroom: “ I remember that Judge Borsellino got up from his chair and stretched out on the sofa showing fatigue and dejection, he began to cry clearly. And he said to us: ‘I can’t believe, I can’t believe a friend could have betrayed me.’ My colleague Massimo Russo and I were surprised. This crying impressed me at the time, I had never seen Borsellino cry. Paul was particularly troubled at the time. This took place before 4 July ’92, the day on which the greeting ceremony was officially celebrated for Borsellino who had already returned to Palermo for some time leaving the prosecutor of Marsala. Only years later did I understand that that detail could have an investigative interest but we talked about this fact on several occasions with my husband and with Massimo Russo himself ”. ‘The sentence of first instance is fallacious on the crime of threatening the government “The meeting takes place between 1 and 21 June 1992 – says the lawyer Milio today – If it had been General Mori or Colonel De Donno the traitor , or General Subranni, Borsellino would have gone on June 25 to the Carabinieri barracks to propose investigations? Or on July 10 and 11 he would go on a helicopter trip with Subranni, or he would defend them on July 14, 1992, publicly , the traitors? And on July 18, the day before he died, he said: ‘It will not be the mafia that will kill me but my colleagues and others who will allow this to happen, but he never mentions the carabinieri. ” he recently asked the Assize Court of Appeal to confirm the first degree sentences imposed on bosses, former carabinieri and politicians accused of threatening the State Political Body in the trial on the so-called State-Mafia negotiation. In the first instance, the boss Leoluca Bagarella was sentenced to 28 years in prison, to 12 the former officers of the Ros Mario Mori and Antonio Subranni, the former senator of Forza Italia Marcello Dell’Utri and the ex-doctor who is very faithful to Totò Riina, Antonino China. Eight years the sentence imposed on the former captain of the Ros Giuseppe De Donno. The Court – in the first instance – had also declared the “not having to proceed” against the collaborator of justice Giovanni Brusca due to the statute of limitations given the recognition of the extenuating circumstances provided for the collaborators of justice. Massimo Ciancimino had also been sentenced to 8 years for slander and external complicity but then, in the second degree, his position was removed because the crime was barred. “Did General Mario Mori threaten the government or not? – says Milio – Because this is the crime for which General Mori was sentenced to 12 years and is still on trial. Here we talked about negotiations, real or presumed, but even in the indictment no reference is made to the threat that is the real crime at the center of this trial. Speaking of the first instance sentence, he says tranchant: “It is fallacious on the crime of threatening the government”. ” The charge against the former General Mori is that he would have made a threat to the government – says Milio – In order for you, gentlemen, judges, to decide one thing must be clear: Mori threatened the government or not in 1993 as deemed in judgment? ”. ” Are we sure that Vito Ciancimino said that there would be a rift between Riina and Provenzano? – he says – No, there is no evidence, on the contrary, on the contrary, we are certain that he did not say so. “The defense arguments will continue next Monday, July 5, with the intervention of Colonel Giuseppe De Donno’s lawyer, the lawyer Francesco Romito. (By Elvira Terranova)