Italy pays tribute to anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcon on Monday “Thanks to Balcon’s courage, professionalism and determination, Italy has become a free and just country,” he said in a statement. “Falcon and his colleagues in the anti-Palermo mafia pool not only deal decisive blows to the mafia. Their heroism has rooted anti-mafia values in society, in new generations, in republican institutions,” he added.
At 5:58 pm on May 23, 1992, 500 kg of TNT and ammonium nitrate tore off a section of highway leading to Palermo Airport, pulverizing a car from Judge Falcon’s escort. Three policemen in it were killed. In another car, an armored white Fiat Chroma, driving Judge Falcon and his wife Francesca Morvillo on the passenger side were critically injured. Only their driver, who was sitting in the back, survived.
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Mafia’s first “high test”
At the scene of the attack is a stone and “memorial garden” where Interior Minister Louisiana Lamorges laid a wreath on Monday morning. President Sergio Materella and his brother, who was killed by the Mafia, attended another ceremony in the Sicilian capital, Palermo. This year it appeared on the front pages of all major dailies on Mondays La StompaIt was shown on the judge’s photo with the caption: “One of us”.
Judge Falcone, who marked the beginning of the Italian state against Cosa Nostra, specifically instructed the Mafia’s first “maxi-investigation”, which led to the conviction of hundreds of mafias in 1987. Anti-mafia lawyer Pavlo Borcelino is considered Falcon’s “Siamese brother” and was killed in a bomb attack on July 19, 57 days after his friend Giovanni, along with five of his members. A two euro coin bearing their image has recently been issued in their memory.
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