dpa
Palermo
Thousands of Italians gathered in the city of Palermo on Monday to commemorate the death of Giovanni Falconi, a prosecuting magistrate murdered by the Sicilian Mafia exactly 30 years ago.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who was flanked by other political and civic leaders, attended the ceremony and was joined in remembering the anti-Mafia prosecutor by members of the public.
Falcone died along with his wife Francesca Morvillo when a 500-kilogram bomb - detonated by the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia - exploded alongside their car on May 23, 1992, as it was travelling along a motorway near the town of Capaci. Three police bodyguards travelling with them were also killed.
The assassination - known in Italy as the "Bloodbath of Capaci” - along with a fatal bomb attack two months later on Falcone’s colleague, Paolo Borsellino, shocked the country profoundly and prompted the passage of new laws to counter the power of the Mafia.
"Thanks to Falcone’s courage, professionalism and determination, Italy has become a freer and more just country,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said during the ceremony.
"We need to be aware of the deep significance of Falcone’s legacy in a merciless struggle against organized crime and in the quest for the truth. We owe this to their relatives and the relatives of all the victims of Mafia political terror,” Draghi said.
Mattarella, whose brother Piersanti was also killed by the Mafia in 1980 while serving as president of Sicily, paid tribute to Maria Falcone, the murdered prosecutor’s sister, who runs a Sicilian foundation aimed at combatting the Mafia.
Palermo
Thousands of Italians gathered in the city of Palermo on Monday to commemorate the death of Giovanni Falconi, a prosecuting magistrate murdered by the Sicilian Mafia exactly 30 years ago.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who was flanked by other political and civic leaders, attended the ceremony and was joined in remembering the anti-Mafia prosecutor by members of the public.
Falcone died along with his wife Francesca Morvillo when a 500-kilogram bomb - detonated by the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia - exploded alongside their car on May 23, 1992, as it was travelling along a motorway near the town of Capaci. Three police bodyguards travelling with them were also killed.
The assassination - known in Italy as the "Bloodbath of Capaci” - along with a fatal bomb attack two months later on Falcone’s colleague, Paolo Borsellino, shocked the country profoundly and prompted the passage of new laws to counter the power of the Mafia.
"Thanks to Falcone’s courage, professionalism and determination, Italy has become a freer and more just country,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said during the ceremony.
"We need to be aware of the deep significance of Falcone’s legacy in a merciless struggle against organized crime and in the quest for the truth. We owe this to their relatives and the relatives of all the victims of Mafia political terror,” Draghi said.
Mattarella, whose brother Piersanti was also killed by the Mafia in 1980 while serving as president of Sicily, paid tribute to Maria Falcone, the murdered prosecutor’s sister, who runs a Sicilian foundation aimed at combatting the Mafia.