A preliminary hearings
judge in Caltanissetta on Monday sent to trial fugitive Cosa
Nostra No. 1 Matteo Messina Denaro for being among those who
ordered the 1992 bomb murders of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni
Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
The trial will begin in Caltanassetta on March 13.
Messina Denaro, now 53, has been on the run since 1993 and is
on Interpol's list of the world's 10 most wanted fugitives.
He has not been seen in public in over 20 years. An
informant in 2014 helped authorities update their facial
composite of the Mafia boss.
Cosa Nostra mobsters turned State's witnesses Francesco
Geraci and Vincenzo Sinacori told investigators Messina Denaro
took part in a September 1991 Mafia summit to plan Falcone's
assassination.
Jailed boss of bosses Toto' Riina, who allegedly chaired that
summit, has already been convicted of ordering the hits on
Falcone and Borsellino.
Another former Mafia No.1, Bernardo Provenzano, who died in
jail last July, was also found guilty of commissioning the
murders.
Falcone was assassinated by a huge bomb under the
Palermo-Palermo airport highway at Capaci along with his wife
Franvesca Morvillo and three police escorts on May 23, 1992.
Borsellino was killed by a massive car bomb on July 19, 1992,
together with his five police escorts in the via D'Amelio near
his mother's home in Palermo.
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