State-Mafia negotiation process: Dell’Utri for the first time in court

PALERMO – The new hearing of the State-Mafia appeal process has begun before the Court of Appeal of Palermo presided over by Angelo Pellino. Today the pg Carlo Barbiera and Giuseppe Fici will begin the indictment. Those accused of threatening the State Political Body are the officers of the carabinieri Mario Mori and Giuseppe De Donno and the former head of the Ros Antonio Subranni, the former senator of Forza Italia Marcello Dell’Utri, who today for the first time is present in classroom, the bosses Leoluca Bagarella and Antonino Cinà and the repentant Giovanni Brusca.

In the first instance Dell’Utri had been sentenced to twelve years in prison. The former Publitalia manager, definitively convicted for external competition in the mafia association by the Palermo judges, finished serving his sentence in 2019. Approached by reporters, he preferred not to speak: “My lawyers tell me not to say nothing … », he limited himself to saying.

All the defendants, except Brusca for whom the prescription was declared, were sentenced to very heavy penalties. The Court of Assizes of Appeal, on the other hand, declared the crime of slander alleged to Massimo Ciancimino, son of the former mafia mayor of Palermo Vito, who was 8 years old in first instance, prescribed. According to the judges, the offense was prescribed on April 2, 2018, therefore before the first instance sentence.