Riina agrees to testify in court (3)

(ANSA) - Palermo, January 30 - 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.