Mattarella remembers Falcone

(ANSA) - Rome, may 22 - 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.