From 41 bis to freedom, the list of released mafiosi grows
PALERMO – Giuseppe Corona’s is only the latest release due to the expiration of the terms of pre-trial detention. The boss of Resuttana was preceded by other convicts who were released and who cannot be ignored in the new map of the mafia. And not just in Palermo.
There are people at large whose membership in Cosa Nostra is certain , others like Corona with heavy second degree sentences, and still others who the same mafia associates who were intercepted considered key figures for the entire organization.
The “pillar”
“There are three pillars here that cannot be touched,” said Giuseppe Incontrera, a boss whose rise was stopped with lead. One of the three was his father-in-law Giuseppe Di Giovanni, who has been free since July 2023, due to the expiration of the terms after the defense had not been notified of some documents.
“I entered for the first time in March last year,” said Di Giovanni, placing the beginning of his season at the top of Porta Nuova in 2019, having taken over from brothers Tommaso and Gregorio. He wanted the relative acquired through the marriage between his children to be at his side in managing the business and to make it clear to everyone who was “the owner of this machine”.
The Men of Messina Denaro
A few days ago, the Palermo Court of Appeal released from prison due to the expiration of the trial terms - the maximum time limit within which the trial should have concluded - nine Trapani bosses who were loyal to Matteo Messina Denaro : Nicola Accardo, Giuseppe Tilotta, Paolo Bongiorno, Calogero Guarino, Vincenzo La Cascia, Raffaele Urso, Andrea Valenti Filippo Dell'Acqua, Antonino Triolo.
Sentenced after a postponement of the sentence by the Supreme Court only to evaluate some aggravating circumstances, therefore mafiosi but released from prison. Some were detained under 41 bis, just like Corona who instead remained six years in prison, the maximum limit allowed while awaiting the final sentence.
The first-degree trial ended in June 2022. Last March he was convicted on appeal. The motivation has not yet been filed, then there will be the judgment in Cassation.
Long trials, changes of panels, annulments with postponement, procedural defects: justice follows tortuous tracks even in mafia trials. And releases from prison, with the code in hand, become "legitimate" and inevitable even in the face of crimes that create social alarm.
The Bosses of Brancaccio In Brancaccio in 2021, some defendants were released despite their first-degree conviction. Among them Giovanni Lucchese, known as Johnny, Claudio D'Amore, Giuseppe Caserta who are waiting at liberty to know the outcome of the appeal trial.
Behind the expiration of the terms in their case was the cancellation of the appeal process after having accepted a ruling by the Supreme Court: the judge who sent the defendants to trial, in fact, was incompatible because as a investigating judge he had signed some interception decrees.
Convicted and released who join those who have become free after having paid the price of justice. Stories of the mafia , of old guard bosses and of new faces who have made their way like Corona who has always defined himself as a victim of justice.
