Outrage in Italy after the release of the brutal gangster who murdered judge Giovanni Falcone

The early release of Giovanni Brusca, condemned among others by the 1992 murder of famous Sicilian anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, sparked outrage in Italy on Tuesday, where the news made all the headlines.

Giovanni Brusca, 64, was released on Monday for good behavior from Roman prison in Rebibbia after his death 25 years behind bars, during which he agreed to collaborate with the authorities.

According to Italian law, you must remain on probation during the the next four years. Brusca’s release from prison, with an additional 45-day bonus upon expiry of his sentence, drew criticism because such a bloody murderer benefited from the law that reduced the sentences of collaborators, and of which Falcone himself was a great advocate.

“They free Brusca, the cruelest boss,” the newspaper headlined. The Republic.

“This is news that hurts me as a person, but it is the law, a law that my brother wanted and which must be respected”, reacted the sister of Judge Falcone, María, quoted by the newspaper.

Justice established that Giovanni Brusca was the person who, in 1992, he operated the remote control that detonated the bomb who destroyed the judge’s car near Palermo, killing Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards.

The wife of one of the bodyguards, Tina Montinaro, expressed “outrage” at Brusca’s release on Tuesday.

“Twenty-nine years later, we still don’t know the truth and (…) the man who destroyed my family is free,” he lamented.

A bloodthirsty criminal

Brusca, one of the closest associates of Toto Riina, the feared leader of Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, was arrested on May 20, 1996.

After his arrest, agreed to collaborate with justice and testify in numerous trials.

Known as Scannacristiani (the Matacristianos) and also “U ‘Verru” (the pig in Sicilian), Brusca started very young in the Mafia, since his father, Bernardo, was a well-known “capo” and when he been arrested, he took his place, still supported by Riina.

He was part of a ruthless group of assassins who acted under Riina’s direct command and, according to him, he confessed to investigators after his arrest on May 20, 1996. ordered and committed the murder of more than 150 peoplewhich he was unable to remember.

He was convicted of the 1983 kidnapping and murder of little Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 11-year-old son of a repentant mafia, who strangled and then dissolves his body in acid, an act of revenge against the father who had agreed to collaborate with justice.

His release was criticized by many political leaders, both right and left.

The leader of the Democratic Party (PD, center-left), Enrico Letta, described it as “a punch in the stomach (which) leaves you speechless”.

“A person who did these acts, who dissolved a child in acid, who killed Falcone, in my opinion is a beast and cannot get out of jail“, For his part reacted the leader of the far-right La Liga Matteo Salvini.

Source: AFP