Referendum 2022, Mannino: “I am ill in my cell and acquitted after 300 hearings, I will vote 5 yes”

“On Sunday I will go to vote in Sciacca, my town of residence, and I will vote five yeses for the referendum on justice. One, in particular, is more close to my heart, the second question, the one concerning preventive detention, and I talk about it with knowledge of the facts …. The yes has an immediate impact on the fundamental point of the crisis of the trial: the proof. You cannot put me in jail for a simple suspicion. You can do it for crimes against people “. Speaking, in an interview with Adnkronos, is the former DC minister Calogero Mannino. The former politician was arrested on February 13, 1995, on custody order signed by the investigating judge of Palermo, on charges of external involvement in the mafia association. The judge had justified the measure with the danger of misdirection in the investigations. Locked up in the Roman prison of Rebibbia, he fell seriously ill until he reached a state of decay which led to his release from prison. It took years and years of trials. Eventually Mannino was acquitted of all charges. The first trial, the one that later ended with the acquittal, was among the longest ever held: more than 300 hearings, 400 witnesses cited, of which 250 by the prosecution and 150 by the defense, including the former President of the Republic Francesco Cossiga, 25 repentant, from Tommaso Buscetta to Gioacchino Pennino, from Giovanni Brusca to Angelo Siino, who accused him of being one of the referents of Cosa Nostra. The acquittal put an end to a judicial affair that cost him just under two years in prison and the end of a political career. Today Mannino, speaking of the referendum, explains: “The questions are formulated in such a way that one understands exactly the opposite of what one wants to say”. And speaking again of the question on preventive detention, he reiterates: “I speak about it with full knowledge of the facts, you must establish it only for some crimes, the scope of which is of absolute gravity”, and I speak of “crimes against people, to the limit against things . For all other crimes, for example against the public administration or the trafficking of influence … How do you go to jail on this? Furthermore, I want to remind you that only in Italy there is this type of preventive detention that is hypothesized ” . But what exactly does the second question, the orange card, provide? You will be asked to limit the precautionary measures, with the repeal of the last sentence of art. 274, paragraph 1, lett. c), of the code of criminal procedure with reference to the part in which it allows to bring a person on trial to prison, if there is a risk that he could commit a crime of the same kind as the one for which he is prosecuted. Let’s see in detail what it is and what it means. ‘I spoke about it once with Vassalli in the Council of Ministers’ Then, Calogero Mannino recalls an episode when he was a minister. “I talked about it in the Council of Ministers with Giuliano Vassalli, who was inspired by a guaranteeist logic, but Vassalli’s rule was used in the most overturned way possible with respect to those guaranteeist intentions”. “On preventive detention there would be a clear, serious speech to be made, which then is the speech that affects the whole process: the proof. The evidence acquired and not the evidence to be sought”, he says. Mannino then recalls some moments of his trial: “At each hearing the prosecutor arrived with new minutes. But shouldn’t they have brought them first?”. And he adds: “I went to jail for the statements of the collaborator Gioacchino Pennino, who voted for me. When he came to the courtroom the President of the Court asked him ‘Who did you vote for?’ And he replied: ‘For Pumilia, for Ruffini, Ruffo, Alberto Alessi, Sinesio, and Mannino.’ And the president said to him: ‘But there were not four preferences? These are six’ and Pennino replied: ‘Yes, but I I made them spin. “This shows that Nibs was one who made fun of humanity. Then the President said:” Why did he vote for Mannino? ” and he: “Who was I to vote for? P’aranci in tierra (for the oranges on the ground ed)? What does that mean? I was voting for someone who would become Prime Minister. Everyone was talking about his intelligence.” made me go to jail for two years “. “Caselli kept saying that Pennino voted for Mannino, but when the President of the Court asked him if he had ever had any favors from Mannino, Pennino replied: ‘No, never.’ So even the synallagma Mafia vote with exchange did not succeed. .. Here there are false crimes, false in their basis, which cannot have proof. How do you establish that Nibs voted for me for a mafia reason? “. Speaking again of Sunday’s referendum, Calogero Mannino explains:” Everyone these questions pose truthful questions. Sabino Cassese did an excellent job, explaining them in all aspects. They would be referendums to be voted on so that the parliament will come back to them later, but with courage and coherence, because now we will have to face the problem ” .Mannino complains that “people have remained totally insensitive to the referendums”. “We must begin to acknowledge that a large part of Italian society is far from politics”, he says, underlining that “the politics to which people are sensitive is politics that has other offices, other forums: here we must put the telephone first. Unfortunately, because now there is an incredible communication network. I am talking about the various tools, whatsapp, Instagram etc. And in this forum, politics has only one dimension: resentment. Resentment, and even anger. The causes are many. , they depend on education, training … The big schools that have existed in Italy, that is the Catholic Church and the Communist Party, have closed their shops. Therefore, in the forum there are only angry people. There is contempt for politics. . If I were 18 today and I wanted to start over I wouldn’t do it again. You expose yourself only to a prejudice of contempt. And then there is no reflection. One of the reasons for the affirmation of this forum outside the institutions. ni is that people want to participate. But what better tool for participation than the referendum? In terms of principle, the referendum is an instrument of participatory democracy. And while you invoke a participatory politics you refuse the only instrument there is, the referendum “. (By Elvira Terranova)