Art critic and polemicist
Vittorio Sgarbi and Il Giornale editor Alessandro Sallusti were
found guilty Friday of defaming Palermo prosecutor Nino Di
Matteo in the conservative newspaper owned by Silvio Berlusconi.
Sgarbi got a six-month sentence and Sallusti a sentence of
three months for failure to stop the offending article being
published.
Contrary to initial reports, the terms were not suspended and
the pair will have to serve custodial sentences, probably not in
jail, if the sentence is confirmed on appeal and on final appeal
to the supreme Cassation Court.
Both will also have to pay damages to the prosecutor, who is
now at the central anti-mafia directorate in Rome.
The amount will be set at a separate civil trial.
In the incriminated article, published on January 2, 2014 and
entitled When You Fight The Mafia With Words Only, Sgarbi wrote
that late boss of bosses Totò Riina "is not, if not in
intentions, the enemy of Di Matteo.
"In the facts he is his accomplice. He guarantees his clout
and consideration.
"There is something disturbing about (Di Matteo's) vocation
for martyrdom....Riina's only accomplices are magistrates".
photo: Sgarbi
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