In historic ruling, court says Italian state negotiated with mafia

PALERMO, Italy, (Reuters) - An Italian court convicted former high-ranking state officials and mob bosses yesterday for holding secret negotiations in the early 1990s following a devastating wave of mafia murders and bombings.

Speaking in a high-security “bunker” courtroom on the outskirts of Palermo, Judge Alfredo Montalto ruled that the negotiations had damaged the interests of the state as he shed light on one of the murkiest chapters in recent Italian history.

After the verdict, members of the public clapped and cheered the prosecutors who brought the case to trial five years ago, two decades after a string of mafia bombs and assassinations killed 23 people, including prominent anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

The deadly attacks prompted politicians and state representatives to negotiate with the Sicilian Mafia, then led by the bloodthirsty Corleone crime family.

“What the ruling says is that parts of the state acted as go-between for requests from the mob,” said prosecutor Antonino Di Matteo, who lives under armed guard and has been the target of numerous death threats from the Sicilian mob, or Cosa Nostra.

“As judges were being blown up, some people in the state helped Cosa Nostra,” he said. “This is a historic ruling.”

During the tumultuous years of 1992-93 in Italy, the “Bribesville” corruption investigations brought down the political establishment. Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi stepped into the vacuum, winning the national election in 1994.