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Rating: I shook hands with Dr. Antonio Ingroia. For some, it could have been like shaking hands with Superman. But my heroes were and still are the anti-mafia ones. My heroes were Falcone, Borsellino, and the others who fell in this struggle. Ingroia was Borsellino's “Protégé”. Since 2009, he has been the deputy prosecutor of the Palermo anti-mafia district prosecutor's office, a position once held by Falcone and Borsellino. He obtained the conviction of Dell'Utri in the first instance as a Public Prosecutor. Currently, he is conducting several investigations against the mafia and on the connections between the mafia and state powers.
Ingroia presents his new book. He arrives to the applause of the people. Dark blue checkered suit, white shirt, blue tie. Quick steps, surrounded by bodyguards, a smile spreads across that bearded face, curly, receding hairline, black eyes, bright eyes. Kind eyes. He begins, after surveying the audience, almost shy and with a joke (are you sure I'll say things that will interest you?...just kidding…) to talk about wiretapping. The "essence" is simple: while currently, to be able to wiretap someone, serious indications of a crime are needed, with the reform, “clear indications of guilt” will be required. So what? Some may think. So it's not true that they'll abolish them. In fact, it will be so, Ingroia maintains, because now, to request authorization for them, a crime must have been committed, so, for example, there has been a robbery, and the magistrate requests to wiretap certain suspects. After the reform, it will be necessary to already have elements of guilt for those you want to wiretap. Indications of guilt that are sought precisely through wiretaps. It becomes clear how it will be impossible to have the elements to request them. He also explains how, in his opinion, the groundwork was laid to modify the norm. For almost two years, government representatives and certain newspapers have been issuing unjustified alarms on this investigative tool. “Il Giornale” reported on the front page “We are all under investigation,” the Minister of Justice Alfano said that the “vast majority of Italians are under investigation.” According to Ingroia, people wiretapped in Italy currently are around 15-20 thousand out of 60 million. Below the European average in a country where the mafia emergency would require an even greater effort. Removing wiretaps from magistrates means taking away the main investigative tool. The tool that over the years has put Riina, Provenzano, and many other mafiosi (but also corrupt individuals, accomplices, traffickers, terrorists) in jail and was the spark for Falcone's mafia mega-trial. There seems to be a rush to extinguish the fire and the sparks that generate it.
Besides the book, I am even more interested in the epic of the anti-mafia today represented by Ingroia. The story of the Palermo prosecutor's office. Of the men who fight a monster with a thousand heads. A monster that you never know where it might bite you from. And how far it has reached. Is your companion trustworthy? The collaborator, the regional councilor, the policeman, the president, the minister, the builder... who is complicit? Who is on the other side? Fighting. Until a few years ago, attacks on the anti-mafia came from the mafia. They were devastating attacks. Bombs under highways, car bombs in parking lots, in squares, armed attacks. But civil society was cohesive, “embraced” to encourage the work of magistrates. They were our hope. After the massacres of '92, there was a popular uprising. Young people pinned portraits of Falcone and Borsellino to the walls of their homes. There was an impressive increase in enrollments in law school. During that time, there were also the “Clean Hands” trials by the Milan magistrates. There was a good, fresh, and regenerating air. Some politicians were thrown out. Italy was tired, entire parties disappeared, vanished. Then... Silence. Who rules in Italy? Things changed gradually. Something sneaky slipped into the right places. The air changed. It became stale, heavy. The attacks began. Those filthy Milan magistrates. Murderers! And slowly, the beast, sinuous and lascivious, came to attack the Anti-Mafia directly. Attacks no longer came from the mafia. No. Now from the men of state. I then wondered: but how can a politician, a delegate of the people, a man who swears on the State and the Constitution, attack the anti-mafia, the magistrates, especially those who fight corruption and the mafia. What kind of politician is that? What kind of man is that? What does he want to do? Why does he do it? I was astonished. Then more years passed, and here we are at the direct attacks of the head of government, the minister of justice, many ministers, several newspapers, newscasts, including the main one, the news institution in Italy, the Tg1. From a government that has the votes of the majority of voters. And then there is the deafening silence of the left, or center-left, as one might say. What is happening? Rather, what has happened from the time of the massacres until now? I don’t know. I can imagine, but, based on the facts, I don’t know. I only see what happens. Ugly things. I am with them.
Ingroia and the other magistrates represent what I would have liked to be. Maybe it’s only in my imagination. A man fighting for the good of society. Fighting for justice. So that justice truly is the same for everyone. Against powers monstrously stronger than him. Than them. A man with a beard who smiles and looks me in the eye and shakes my hand hard, hard. I think, in split seconds… flashes. The emotion is strong. A lump in my throat. Imagining what it must feel like. This is a special person. He could change the course of events. He could save us. He could definitively cut off the head of the monster. He could make Italy reborn. He could redeem us. Make us smile, make us go out like on a sunny day. To be sure that our children can know what is good and evil. Distinguish it. Divide good from evil. Evil is so alluring. So tempting. So convenient. So easy. But it stinks. Of explosives, blood, tears, drugs, money, dirty business, sex, power… Good is tighter, uncomfortable, difficult, difficult, jagged… Flashes. This is a man. I squeeze his hand harder. Harder, and I smile too.
Antonio Ingroia “The rule of law risks a final solution if the current draft bills on wiretapping, criminal procedure reform, and so-called quick trials are turned into law”.
Minzolini editorial TG1 8:00 pm: “A few days ago, the Palermo prosecutor Antonio Ingroia deemed the government's policy on justice dangerous. A surprising analysis for a magistrate who has set himself an even more improper goal: that, in his words, of reversing the course of events. A political program that Ingroia justified with the defense of the Constitution, except that the Constitution he wanted to safeguard, at least on one substantial point, is not the original one”.
Gianfranco Anedda (Senator PDL, now a "lay member," elected by Parliament, of the Superior Council of the Judiciary)" on the occasion of the attack on Berlusconi, about Ingroia: "Words like his have contributed and could contribute to fomenting violence”
Berlusconi, May 9, 2008: “Dell'Utri is right to consider Vittorio Mangano's behavior heroic” Ingroia: “I don't know if he was a hero, certainly, he was a mobster and a murderer”.
Ingroia: "In the years following the terrible biennium '91-'93, Dell'Utri matured the idea of founding a political movement", precisely "while Cosa Nostra was clearing the board of old political references. And between the internal hypothesis to Cosa Nostra, with Bagarella's 'Sicilia Libera', and Dell'Utri's idea, the latter was chosen, because the senator had demonstrated great reliability."
Berlusconi, April 8, 2008: "For the PMs, a mental health examination would be needed." Berlusconi: February 26, 2010: “Taliban PMs!”.
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