President Sergio Mattarella on
Monday remembered anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone as he
opened a plenary session of the judiciary's self-governing body,
the Supreme Council of Magistrates, devoted to the late anti-Mob
hero two days before the 25th anniversary of his murder.
Mattarella, who lost his elder brother, Sicily governor
Piersanti, to the Mafia in 1980, recalled that Falcone was
always "a stickler for the solidity of evidence" as he showed in
the so-called maxi-trial that convicted dozens of Mafia bosses
and earned him the death sentence that was carried out on May
25, 1992.
Falcone was also a firm believer in the independence of the
judiciary, Mattarella recalled.
The president urged the judiciary to keep up the fight
against the mafia, upholding the memory of Falcone and his
friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino, also murdered by the Mob
in 1992.
Matterall will lead a commemoration of Falcone by addressing
1,000 students from over all Italy in the Ucciardone prison
bunker hall with Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso, the former
national anti-Mafia prosecutor, Interior Minister Marco Minniti
and Education Minister Valeria Fedeli.
There will be marches through the Sicilian capital Wednesday
afternoon and commemorative programmes on Italian State TV
Wednesday night.
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