The murder in a Palermo street of
Cosa Nostra boss Giuseppe Dainotti was "symbolic" like the
murders 25 years ago of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone
and Paolo Borsellino, Palermo Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi
told reporters.
"When it is necessary the Mafia once again shoots in a clear
and symbolic way," he said.
He said that killing Dainotti, "in the centre of Palermo, on
May 22", three days before the Falcone anniversary, "can have
various meanings".
Italy will mark the 25th anniversary of Falcone's murder with
a string of events on Wednesday, also commemorating his friend
and colleague Borsellino, who was murdered two months later that
year.
Both crusading anti-Mafia magistrates were blown up by huge
bombs - in the case of Falcone, his wife, and his police escort,
planted under the Palermo-airport highway at Capaci, and in
Borsellino's case a car bomb outside his mother's house, within
the space of two months in 1992.
The murders, and other fatal bombings of art sites in 1993,
spurred a strong reaction from the State that led to the arrests
of Corleone boss of bosses Totò Riina and his long-time co-boss,
the late Bernardo Provenzano.
Cosa Nostra has gone back in the shadows while reinforcing
links to business and politics, former Falcone and Borsellino
colleague and ex-Mafia National Prosecutor Pietro Grasso, the
Senate Speaker, said on Italian TV Sunday night.
But as Lo Voi said Monday, "as we have often said, whenever
someone says that the Mafia is no longer there or that it has
been defeated, something happens that confirms that the Mafia is
always there".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
