A former Mafia boss' cooperation with the state let him escape a life sentence because of a law sponsored by one of his victims: anti-Mafia prosecutor, Giovanni Falcone
That was in 1996. On May 31st Mr Brusca left prison in Rome, a free man after serving 25 years of a 30-year sentence imposed for, among many murders, that in 1992 of Italy’s most renowned anti-Mafia prosecutor, Giovanni Falcone. Few recent events have stirred greater revulsion than the release of this former Mafia boss, nicknamed, in Sicilian. “This is not the justice Italy deserves,” railed Matteo Salvini, the leader of the populist Northern League.
, the boss of bosses—namely the psychopathic Salvatore “Totò’” Riina. In the early 1990s Riina launched a terrorist campaign against the Italian state that involved lethal bombings in several mainland cities, the assassination of Falcone and the later killing of Falcone’s colleague, Paolo Borsellino. It was Mr Brusca who detonated the bomb that killed Falcone, his wife and bodyguards.
Ironically, Mr Brusca himself turned state’s evidence after his own arrest. After initially misleading interrogators, he began giving them valuable intelligence on the Sicilian Mafia, better known as Cosa Nostra. His co-operation let him escape a life sentence because of a law sponsored, just as ironically, by Falcone. That law has helped police and prosecutors turn several other top Mafiosi and helped steadily to weaken the Mafia over the past 25 years.
Falcone’s sister, Maria, has said she is saddened by Mr Brusca’s release. But, she added, “That is the law—and a law that my brother wanted—so it must be respected.” Her brother, one suspects, would have been proud of her.This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "The price of success"
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