Former Mafia boss of bosses
Totò Riina on Monday said he will testify in court on alleged
talks between the Italian State and Cosa Nostra to stop a string
of mafia bombings in the early 1990s.
Through a lawyer, Riina, 86, said he would answer questions
from prosecutors and lawyers.
It will be the first time Riina has ever testified in court.
Of the 10 defendants - Mafiosi; informants like Giovanni
Brusca; the son of a Mafioso Palermo mayor, Massimo Ciancimino;
former politicians like ex-Berlusconi aide Marcello Dell'Utri
and former interior minister Nicola Mancino; and ex-Carabinieri
special force officers - Riina is the only one who has agreed to
answer questions in court.
Former prosecutor Antonino Ingroia said recently he is
writing a novel on his time at the trial on alleged talks
between the State and the Mafia to stop the bombs, and suggested
he would reveal the contents of wiretaps, later destroyed,
between former President Giorgio Napolitano and former interior
minister and Senate Speaker Mancino.
"There are things to be told," he said.
Mancino is among several people on trial for the alleged
talks to stop bombings that included the murders of anti-Mafia
magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992.
Napolitano gave evidence in the trial but taped conversations
between him and Mancino were ordered destroyed.
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