The name of slain anti-Mafia judge
Giovanni Falcone does not merit protection, a German court ruled
in rejecting a suit against a Frankfurt pizzeria that called
itself 'Falcone and Borsellino' and put up the famous photo of
Falcone with his slain colleague Paolo Borsellino alongside that
of Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone in the Godfather.
Maria Falcone, sister of the magistrate slain by a Cosa Nostra
bomb in May 1992, two months before Borsellino met the same
fate, said the photo was a violation of the memory of her late
brother.
But the Frankfurt court rejected her appeal saying "the judge is
only known to a limited circle of people with knowledge of his
case and not to the ordinary people that frequent the pizzeria".
It said "the judge operated mainly in Italy, and in Germany is
only known to a small set of specialists".
On the walls of the eatery, as well as the photos of the heroic
magistrates and Don Corleone, there are a string of holes
resembling bullet holes.
In her suit, Maria Falcone asked the court to stop the owner of
the pizzeria, Constantin Ulbrich, from using her family name for
his establishment.
In its sentence, the court also said that the fight against the
Mafia is no longer in people's minds and Falcone died almost 30
years ago.
It rejected documents produced by Maria Falcone and the Falcone
Foundation attesting to Giovanni Falcone's enduring
international fame and in particular the Palermo magistrate's
acclaim in Germany still today.
Maia Falcone said "we are very pained by this sentence".
"Precisely at a time when the value of the work and the human
and professional heritage of Giovanni Falcone is recognised at a
world level, a magistrate of a country (Germany) that is
suffering on its flesh the heavy shadow of the presence of the
mafia, comes out with a sentence like this," she said.
Less than two months ago, a UN conference on transnational crime
passed a unanimous resolution recognising Falcone's contribution
to the fight against international organised crime, she
stressed.
And her brother has earned many posthumous awards for his work
from Germany, "a country that has shown great sensitivity to the
issues of mafia and legality," she said.
"We will appeal against a sentence that we deem unjust also in
light of the value it assumes in a city with a very strong
presence of Italians who well know the meaning of the fight
against the mafia and the sacrifice of those who lost their
lives for justice".
The centrist Italy of Values (IV) party said Foreign Minister
Luigi Di Maio should protest to Berlin in the cas.
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