Borsellino, legal body builder accused unjustly: “The compensation will be paid by the prosecutors”

“It is absurd that the State does not retaliate against the magistrates who have, albeit unintentionally, caused this great damage to my client. Scarantino has unjustly accused him of having participated in the Via D’Amelio massacre, when the collaborator Cancemi he had said several times that he did not know him and that Scarantino was not a man of honor “. To tell the Adnkronos is the lawyer Giuseppe Scozzola, commenting on the decision of the Court of Appeal of Catania to liquidate the heirs of the coachbuilder Giuseppe Orofino, unjustly accused of the massacre in via D’Amelio, the sums of over 1.4 million EUR. “It was well known that the meeting at Villa Calascibetta (of which the false repentant Scarantino had spoken) was denied by the collaborators Salvatore Cancemi, but also by Santino Di Matteo and Gioacchino La Barbera – explains the lawyer Scozzola – I remember that the Borsellino ter trial completely trashed Scarantino’s statements and continued to support Scarantino and then came to the appeal sentence of Borsellino bis which is an illegible sentence. It is not clear why it should be the State to pay and not the magistrates “. Scozzola therefore remembers the statements made by collaborator Cancemi who, during a confrontation with Scarantino, said to him: “You don’t speak like a mafioso” and adding “who suggested you to say these things?”. “The magistrate’s task would have been to say ‘let’s see what is happening’ and not hide behind the fact that he hasn’t declared some things in time, that’s nonsense.” “Leaving aside the services – he says – And let’s not forget that Palermo is no less responsible than Caltanissetta, when he has Scarantino in front of him, who accuses himself of murders and accuses others of murders. Certainly when I accuse myself or do the trial. for murder or for self-malignancy, but you cannot file. Because the crime exists. Instead, Caselli contributed voluntarily or not to support Scarantino. If he had made a trial for self-malignancy some things would not have happened “. On January 26, 1996 the Assize Court of Caltanissetta, chaired by Renato Di Natale, sentenced Salvatore Profeta, Giuseppe Orofino and Pietro Scotto to life imprisonment. Eighteen years were inflicted on Vincenzo Scarantino. He obtained a penalty discount for his collaboration, who thus received the first procedural trust stamp. On February 13, 1999 came the sentence of the “Borsellino bis”. The Court of Assizes presided over by Pietro Falcone sentenced Salvatore Riina, Pietro Aglieri, Carlo Greco, Giuseppe Graviano, Francesco Tagliavia, Salvatore Biondino and Gaetano Scotto to life imprisonment. On appeal, Orofino saw his sentence reduced to 9 years for aiding and abetting. Acquitted Scotto. Meanwhile Scarantino retracted everything. In 2002, the appeal board, chaired by Francesco Caruso, decided that not only seven defendants but thirteen deserve life imprisonment. Add the names of Cosimo Vernengo, Natale Gambino, Giuseppe La Mattina, Lorenzo Tinnirello, Gaetano Murana and Giuseppe Urso. In the motivations of the Borsellino quater, the judges write, among other things, that “among other” anomalies “also” the singular chronology of the inspection carried out by the Scientific Police of Palermo (“at the request of the local Mobile Squad”), in the body shop of Giuseppe Orofino at 11 am on Monday 20 July 1992 “because” the latter had reported, just a couple of hours earlier, the theft of number plates (and more) from a Fiat 126 belonging to one of his customers, inside his garage “. However, when” the Scientific Police carried out these surveys in the workshop in via Messina Marine – they pointed out the reasons for the sentence – the plaque object of Orofino’s complaint had not yet been found in via D’Amelio ” nor “the engine block of the Fiat 126 stolen from Pietrina Valenti”. Furthermore, “it was only in the afternoon of 20 July 1992” that “said engine block was attributed to a Fiat 126. These circumstances – the judges stated – are not at all valid. the little moment, when reflecting on the fact that, instead, already in the afternoon of 19 July 1992, sources of the State Police hypothesized the use, as a car bomb, of a small Fiat and, in particular, a ‘600, a Panda, a 126 ‘. This investigative hypothesis, which proved to be well founded and consistent with the subsequent discoveries on the scene of the massacre, of the finds of the car bomb, cannot be explained only by the efficiency and diligence lavished by the investigators in trying to shed light immediately, with the maximum practicable investigative effort. , on a very serious fact, which also caused the premature death of the five members of the State Police, but necessarily assuming a confidential contribution by someone who (evidently) was well informed on the concrete execution methods of the attack. Otherwise with – it is the conclusion – it would not be explained, on a logical level, the reason why the Flying Squad of Palermo, directed by Arnaldo La Barbera (former collaborator of the Sisde, with the code name “Rutilius”, since 1986), requested an intervention from the Scientific Police, for an immediate inspection of the workshop of any body builder in Palermo, who had only reported (just a couple of hours earlier) the theft of some number plates from a car of one of his customers “. 2017, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Via D’Amelio massacre, the sentence of the review process arrived. After the declarations of the repentant Gaspare Spatuzza and the admissions of the false collaborator of justice Vincenzo Scarantino which had already led to the release of seven defendants who were serving life sentences, the Caltanissetta Assize Court of Appeal, issuing the sentence in the review process, had acquitted those seven accused of the massacre. people were acquitted of minor offenses and Scarantino himself acquitted.A request for the review process was the general prosecutor of Caltanissetta who, believing the new statements by Gaspare Spatuzza to be reliable, accusing the killers of the Brancaccio-led clan of the execution of the massacre by the Graviano brothers, he had cleared and immediately released nine other defendants who had been convicted on the basis of Scarantino’s false accusations. The review opinion concerned Gaetano Murana, Giuseppe Orofino, Cosimo Vernengo, Natale Gambino, Salvatore Profeta, Giuseppe La Mattina, Gaetano Scotto, Vincenzo Scarantino and Salvatore Candura. The latter had been convicted only for the theft of the car which was stuffed with TNT and not for the crime of massacre, while Orofino was held responsible for embezzlement, aiding and abetting and simulation of a crime. Tomassello had had a conviction for mafia association and not for massacre. As stated in the sentence, of which the Adnkronos is in possession, “the right of Orofino to receive compensation for judicial error must be considered subsisting”. “The evidence on the basis of which Orofino had been found guilty in the first degree of the competition in the Via D’Amelio massacre consisted mainly of the statements by Scarantino who had attributed the activities of preparing the attack to the district of Santa Maria di Gesù with the collaboration of individuals belonging to the Guadagna family, including Orofino “. False accusations, those of Scarantino, as several sentences have ascertained. For the 635 days of detention suffered in the second period, Orofino’s heirs received compensation of 230 thousand euros. For the non-pecuniary damage, the sum of 700 thousand euros must be paid. Money that will now receive the seven heirs of Orofino, including his children and his wife Rosalia. But, according to the lawyer Scozzola, as he reiterates to the Adnkronos: “That money should be paid by the magistrates who believed in Scarantino and not the state”.