Currently Rita Dalla Chiesa is 77 years old.
He was 35 years old on September 3, 1982. At nine o’clock in the evening his father, General Carlo Alberto, who had been sent to Palermo to defeat the mafia, left the prefectural office and got into a small Autobianchi car. His wife Emanuela Setti Carraro was behind the wheel. Several hundred meters away, a BMW driven by Calogero Ganci, a Cosa Nostra member, overtook the general’s car and stopped. Antonio Madonia got out of the BMW carrying a machine gun. 30 hits on the windshield. The general and his wife were killed instantly. Meanwhile, a Honda motorbike approached the guard officer’s car, who collapsed and died accompanied by 10 more shots.
Dear Dalla Chiesa, is it possible that a famous judge like Gratteri read a false statement on TV against career separation, and attributed it to Giovanni Falcone?
“It is very serious if a judge like him reads texts whose authenticity he has not verified. But what amazed me most was that someone, whom Gratteri defines as a very important person, called him to propose this SMS to him. And he, without any control, took this text and announced it on television.”
Using the name Falcone.
“To be precise: this is probably the most serious thing. You cannot use Falcone’s name on TV, associating it with opinions that Falcone does not share.”
Do you know Gratteri?
“Yes, I knew Gratteri a little. He seemed like a good person to me. A state judge. He lived his life as a prosecutor locked up in police barracks and monasteries, always at risk of attack. When he was in Calabria, they swore an oath to him. One evening we found ourselves eating pizza together after a conference. I remember him telling me: “This is freedom”. I asked him: which one? He answered: “Pizza”».
Is life difficult for some judges?
“Yes. I experienced these things firsthand with my father. So I didn’t expect this from Gratteri. Precisely because he experienced a lack of freedom, I expected more caution, more thoroughness.”
In addition to publishing fake Falcone, “Il Fatto Quotidiano” also published fake Borsellino.
“The left told a big lie in the referendum fight that had just started. They didn’t know what else to hold on to. Then they clung to two people as tall as Falcone and Borsellino. And they hoped that people would say: well, if Falcone and Borsellino were against career separation…”.
Is this due to a lack of respect for them?
“No: he’s a bastard.”
Journalist Andrea Scanzi, also on TV, expressed his hatred of Giorgia Meloni, accusing her of betraying Borsellino, again citing false statements…
“Yes, Meloni entered politics as a girl after Borsellino’s death. There were deaths that were ideological tears. And Scanzi created a false controversy about it. I say: you, Scanzi, before speaking and accusing Meloni, at least inform yourself!»
They apologize.
“Well, there’s nothing else they can do.”
Have you ever met Falcone and Borsellino?
“I know Falcone well. Oh, sorry, I ran out of time in the present tense. When my father was killed, he called us, three of us, children. We gave him my father’s diary. We believed. And he could understand a lot of things from that diary. We met him in Rome at the Carabinieri headquarters. He was sitting at the table and next to him was another man. Falcone understood from my face that we would never talk in front of that man. Then he let him out. He took a stack of empty papers, took a pen his stylus and from 3pm to 9pm he wrote, wrote, wrote, all with his own hand.”
Falcone’s life in Palermo was difficult.
“Falcone was massacred in Palermo in those years, they closed his investigation, they hindered him in every way. He spent the last years of his life in real hell.”
Does Borsellino know him?
“Borsellino, I know who he is. Falcone always expected death. Wallet probably didn’t. Then he lived 57 days after Falcone’s death just waiting. And they killed him the day he wanted to take his mother to the doctor. I met his wife Agnese. Great woman.”
His father fought the mafia and left his life there. How would you rate today’s anti-mafia?
“It depends on the society. For me, anti-mafia activity has become a way of advertising. Then there are people who really fight the mafia, but don’t appear in the newspapers or on TV. The real anti-mafia is not the one that is shouted on TV. But we have a very good anti-mafia president. She is a woman, young, ready. Her name is Chiara Colosimo.”
How could the head of Cosa Nostra, Messina Denaro, be able to travel around Sicily freely for 30 years?
“For me it’s impossible. He’s really closed off. He’s calm. And it’s not the mafia that’s protecting him. There’s a political network.
Judiciary, politics, journalism. It’s time to dismantle it.”
Would career separation improve Italian fairness?
“I think yes. There is an absolute need for career separation. There is also a need for judges to pay when they make mistakes. There is a lack of rapport between investigators and judges.”
Society demands fair justice and security.
“Yes, but our carabinieri and police were attacked, beaten, shot with Molotov cocktails, and those who attacked should be put in prison. But no. I don’t trust judges who don’t defend citizens but defend criminals.”
Berlusconi and justice…
“We have a president, Berlusconi, who has been chased all his life with false accusations. And this man continues his journey. That is very powerful. But justice is not in our favor. It has lost credibility.”
The justices blocked government policies to stem illegal immigration.
Why do they do it?
«Because judges want power».
Will the referendum be a vote for or against Meloni?
“This will be a vote against Meloni but it will backfire.”
