Brusca, the Mafia Boss Behind Over 100 Murders and the Assassination of Prosecutor Falcone,
Completes Probation After Release, Sparking Outrage Across Italian Society
Giovanni Brusca, the Sicilian Mafia boss responsible for over 100 murders, including the 1992 assassination of anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in Italy, has been released from all legal restrictions.
According to the Italian daily La Repubblica on June 8, Brusca, who was released on parole in 2021, completed four years of probation on June 5 (local time).
With the end of his probation, he is now free from all legal restrictions, including a nightly curfew (from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.) and the obligation to report to the police three times a week.
On May 23, 1992, Brusca orchestrated the so-called "Capaci Massacre" by remotely detonating a bomb placed in a drainage pipe beneath the highway near Palermo Airport in Sicily, killing Prosecutor Falcone, his wife, and three police officers assigned to their protection.
Since February 1986, Prosecutor Falcone had led the prosecution of Mafia bosses and members, resulting in 476 convictions out of 707 defendants. This trial, which lasted six years until the Supreme Court's final verdict in January 1992, is known as the "Maxi Trial" (Maxiprocesso).
After Falcone's assassination, Brusca also killed Paolo Borsellino, another prosecutor at the forefront of the anti-Mafia campaign, in a bombing in July 1992. He further shocked Italian society by kidnapping and murdering the 11-year-old son of a Mafia member who had cooperated with the police, and dissolving the body in acid to destroy evidence.
Brusca was arrested in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment, but his sentence was reduced to 25 years after he began cooperating with prosecutors in 2000, confessing to numerous Mafia crimes and providing key information. He was released on parole in 2021.
He is currently believed to be living under an assumed name in a location far from Sicily, hiding his identity.
The news of Brusca's release has sparked outrage across Italian society.
Tina Montinaro, the widow of Antonio Montinaro, a police officer killed alongside Falcone, criticized, "This can never be a just outcome for the families of the Capaci Massacre and all the other victims."
She added, "While I acknowledge Brusca's cooperation with the state, we must never forget that, even as a collaborator, he remains a criminal."
On the other hand, former National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Pietro Grasso told local media, "We must look at this rationally, not just emotionally," and evaluated that "Brusca's confessions played a decisive role in preventing further massacres and dismantling the Mafia organization."
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