Also Nicola Gratteri fell into a trap set by Fatto Quotidiano. Giovanni Floris’ guest last night on “DiMartedì”, on La7, the Neapolitan prosecutor quotes a ghost interview with the judge Giovanni Falcone argued that Sicilian judges, like him, opposed separating the careers of judges. But that statement never came; and Falcone, as is well known, always supported the separation of careers.
In a prime time television program, Gratteri began by saying that he wanted to quote Falcone for “dispelling the myth about career separation” – and therefore the Palermo judge actually supported this subdivision – before read from your smartphone:”Separation of careers may be fine if the autonomy and independence of public prosecutors remains guaranteed, but I worry that, through this separation, we want to subordinate the investigative judiciary to the executive. This is unacceptable“.
A few minutes passed and highly critical reactions to Gratteri rained down on social media for a simple reason: there is no trace whatsoever of the interview given by Falcone to Repubblica on January 25, 1992. This is a false statement that has been circulating for weeks, periodically used by those against the reform and supporters of the campaign to vote NO in the referendum and born of fake news from Fatto Quotidiano. Just like there has never been any participation Paolo Borsellino to “Samarcanda” by Michele Santoro on May 23, 1991 according to which “separating careers means undermining the unity of the judiciary. Prosecutors must be able to carry out their functions without having to be accountable to political power“. The phrase was never uttered.
However, as mentioned, Falcone supports it. In a famous interview with Repubblica in 1991 – this interview is actually in the newspaper’s library – he said for example: “Those who, like me, require judges and prosecutors to be, two figures structurally differentiated in skill and careerlabeled as an enemy of the independence of judges, yearns for criminal prosecution discretion, wants to place prosecutors under executive control“. Therefore, the opposite of what Gratteri read.
Gian Domenico Caiazza he didn’t accept it and returned blow for blow to the trick. “Light fake interviews with judges like Giovanni Falcone it means getting to the bottom of the political conflict“, said the president of the “Yes Separa” Committee. Caiazza quoted Gratteri himself. “You can read a fake interview by Giovanni Falcone. No frontman, a renowned investigator, read the text of an interview that Falcone never gave on a television show with millions of listeners: it was a meme that went around. If we get to this level of political confrontation, we have to understand that this is a democracy alarm“.
Therefore, Caiazza then addressed another speech by Falcone on July 28, 1988: “It is unthinkable, and also logically implausible in a law that clearly emphasizes the partisan characteristics of prosecutors, to think that the careers of prosecutors and judges will remain undifferentiated for any length of time.“, is a phrase historically uttered by a judge who was murdered by the mafia in Capaci.”We invite Gratteri. He chose journalists. we await him to discuss the merits of reform. Enough monologues and lies“, added Caiazza. According to Caiazza, the goal of the Yes committee is “interrupted and reversed the river of lies and shameful manipulation of the content of the texts and technicalities of the reform used by the NO group to persuade citizens to approve the results of the referendum.
We must inform citizens, without deceiving or influencing them. We are faced with the alarm of democracy because we don’t want the public to know about it. The lowest point has been reached from political clashes”.
