Antonio D'Alì, the Supreme Court speaks: ''He favored Totò Riina and Matteo Messina Denaro''
Luca Grossi 03 October 2023
The reasons for the conviction for the former senator of Forza Italia have been filed
On 13 December 2022, the six-year prison sentence became final for the former senator and former undersecretary of the interior of Forza Italia Antonio D'Alì, accused of external complicity in a mafia association in consolidated relationships with the Messina Denaro , father and son .

As written in the 24 pages of reasons for the supreme court ruling filed in recent days (President Morini Stefano and Speaker Casa Filippo ) D'Alì "contributed to the support of Cosa Nostra by making his economic resources available and, subsequently, his role institutional role of Senator of the Republic and Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior, having obtained electoral support since the early 1990s and having maintained, in exchange for the requested support, direct or mediated relationships with leading exponents of the association, among the such as Matteo Messina Denaro , Vincenzo Virga , Francesco Pace , Antonino Birrittella andTommaso Coppola ".

The Supreme Court thus rejected the appeal presented by the lawyer of the former senator Fabrizio Merluzzi , accepting, instead, the request of the deputy attorney general Simone Perrelli .

The appealed sentence which has now become final reports that "D'Alì concluded in 2001 (after already twenty years of availability towards the mafia association) a political/mafia pact (yet another) with Cosa Nostra under which the association guaranteed him the electoral support which allowed the accused to be elected to the Senate again (an election which then served as a starting point for the acquisition of the position of Undersecretary at the Ministry of the Interior)".

The former senator, writes the Court of Cassation, has "certainly undertaken serious and concrete commitments in favor of the mafia association" by carrying out external collaboration activities " in favor of Cosa Nostra and its top exponents of the caliber of Totò Riina and Matteo Messina Denaro " and this is indicated by "his already stable, reliable, proven and twenty-year willingness to spend himself in favor of Cosa Nostra".

The reasons state that "it does not appear that D'Alì has ever severed his relations" with the mafia organization and "has ever revoked his willingness to act in favor of the association or individuals who colluded with it".

The affair of Calcestruzzi Ericina and the threats to the Prefect Fulvio Sodano
D'Alì, we read in the document, "concretely spent on the association also from 2001 onwards, trying to frustrate the efforts of the institutions to help Calcestruzzi Ericina (a all to the advantage of Cosa Nostra), threatening and scolding the prefect Sodanoso that he would stop helping Calcestruzzi Ericina, working towards the transfer of Sodano (whose actions in favor of Calcestruzzi Ericina were disliked by Cosa Nostra and a harbinger of economic damage for the association), promising interventions in favor of Pace so that he would regain the availability of assets seized from him as part of prevention measures, demonstrating willingness to intervene in favor of Coppola's businesses - still at the beginning of 2006 - despite the fact that he was in prison for the mafia (while only at a later time was this willingness prudentially - not denied or revoked but simply - postponed until the 'waters' had 'calmed', that is, when the attention - of public opinion and the administrative and judicial authorities - on Coppola had subsided)".

The accusations reported by the Court of Cassation
The judges reported in the reasons that the former senator was accused of "having sold land he owned to Francesco Geraci (frontman of Salvatore Riina , on the express mandate of Matteo Messina Denarothereby contributing to strengthening the control of economic activities by Cosa Nostra which relied on this support in making its criminal-entrepreneurial choices. By way of example, the charge cites the formation of the tender commission for the awarding of the contract for the construction of the Erice cable car, the assessment of the adequacy of the rent for the Carabinieri barracks of San Vito Lo Capo, the disbursement of financing relating to the Trapani North territorial pact and supplies for the safety of the port of Castellammare del Golfo".

The accusations had been contested by D'Alì's defense who had requested the annulment without postponement but the judges decided differently, also contesting the arguments provided by the former senator's lawyers.