CATANIA – «My name is Farina Alessandro, you already know my name as I have been arrested many times, I turn to you journalists to communicate that I have made a fair and honest decision, to dissociate myself from everything and everyone. This decision of mine matured above all for my children and for my crimes ». Thus begins a letter, written in the prison of Ascoli Piceno, where he is locked up, by Alessandro Farina, 35, from Paternity, resident in Santa Maria di Licodia and sent in recent days to our newspaper.
Man of the Rapisarda clan, linked to the Laudani of Catania, Alessandro Farina, last year was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment, as part of the procedure with an abbreviated rite, resulting from the anti-mafia operation En Plein 2, conducted by the carabinieri of the provincial command of Catania, coordinated by Dda etnea. With him, the gup also sentenced his wife, Vanessa Mazzaglia (for her a sentence of 12 years and 1 month of imprisonment); his father-in-law Antonino Mazzaglia (also for him a sentence of 12 years and 1 month); and his nephew, Emanuele Farina (13 years in prison). On his shoulders also a life sentence, arrived in November 2019, for the murder of Turi Leanza.
Who, then, is Alessandro Farina? As reconstructed by the carabinieri, the man, together with Antonino Barbagallo, Antonio Magro, Vincenzo Patti, Francesco Santino Peci and Sebastiano Scalia, would have been part of the commando that on 27 June 2014, killed Salvatore Leanza, known as “Turi Padedda”. Salvatore Leanza, member of the Assinnata-Alleruzzo clan, sentenced to life imprisonment, was released from prison in March 2013 and was subjected to probation.
That morning of June 27, he was leaving, accompanied by his wife, but did not have time to leave the clearing in front of the house, in Viale dei Platani. Here the commando reached him and after surrounding the car began to fire, killing Leanza and seriously injuring his wife who managed to save herself. To call into question Alessandro Farina and the other members of the command were the collaborators of justice, Francesco Musumarra (also in the fire group that killed Leanza) and Orazio Farina, brother of Alessandro. According to what the latter told the investigators, his brother Alessandro was also in the group that wanted to kill Antonino Giamblanco, with the ambush started on 30 July 2014 in Motta Sant’Anastasia and matured in the context of the feud that led to the death a month before Turi Leanza. Giamblanco, however, managed to escape the ambush, saving his life.
In the letter Alessandro Farina he says “I want to dissociate myself from all this.” It is not clear what he means by dissociation, if like his brother he has finally decided to collaborate with justice. It should be noted that apart from the words expressed in the letter, to date, to the Public Prosecutor of Catania, there is no request from the man to want to make a concrete contribution to the law.
“Since I grew up in a town of Paternò there are no hopes and no future for young people – writes Alessandro Farina – I soon started committing crimes and using drugs, I take the opportunity to appeal to the young people of my city and of the world not to use drugs and not to commit crimes. I want to clarify that organized crime is bad, save yourselves, you only ruin your life, like me. This dissociation of mine has matured in the hope of being able to give a future to my children and wife ».
In this second passage of the letter, Alessandro returns to reiterate that he has chosen the path of dissociation, but in judicial circles it is rightly noted that concrete acts are needed – at the moment there is only one letter – also to remove the suspicions that it may be a mere procedural strategy (it is the appeal is pending) to obtain a penalty discount, as happened in other cases on which it is no coincidence that the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor has lit a “beacon”.
One final note: Farina speaks of Paternò as a reality without a future. Hence, as he says, the almost obligatory choice to commit a crime. In reality, it is enough to look at the thousands of young people who study and work in Paternò to understand that there is an honest alternative to crime, it is enough to know how to choose study, work, against crime, easy money, with this last path that inevitably leads to a dead end path. Then, perhaps the most important passage of the letter: «I ask forgiveness from the victim’s family even if it is difficult to forgive myself».