Anti-mafia magistrate Rocco Chinnici, slain by the Sicilian Mafia 40 years ago, taught Italy how to fight the Mafia, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Saturday in front of the stone in Palermo recalling the deaths of Chinnici and four others in the bombing on July 29, 1983.
"Rocco Chinnici taught us how to fight the Mafia. It is what we did with the arrest of (30-year fugitive superboss) Matteo Messina Denaro (in January).
"We will continue on this path. We confirm the 41 bis (tough mafioso jail regime) and the other legislation which has enabled us to achieve positive results. No backtracking. We owe it to the new generations".
On 29 July 1983 a car bomb explosion in Palermo killed 58-year-old Chinnici, two of his bodyguards, Mario Trapassi and Salvatore Bartolotta, and the concierge of his apartment block, Stefano Li Sacchi, as he left the house to go to work. The bomb was triggered by the notorious Mafia assassin Pino Greco, on the orders of his uncle Michele Greco.
In 2002, superboss Bernardo Provenzano, boss of bosse Salvatore Riina, and other mafiosi including Antonino Madonia, Salvatore Buscemi, Giuseppe Calò, and Francesco Madonia were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for ordering the murder of Chinnici.
Provenzano and Riina died in jail after being captured respectively in 2006 and 1993.
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