Mafia Judge Killers Sentenced, Bologna Bombers to Pay 2 Billion
Four members of the Sicilian Mafia were sentenced to between 12 years and life in prison on Wednesday for their role in the notorious 1992 assassination of anti-mob judge Giovanni Falcone.
Convicted murderer Gaspare Spatuzza received the reduced 12-year term after he helped police secure the other convictions related to the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate's blowing up of Falcone's car in an attack which used more than 500 kilograms (half a ton) of explosives.
The huge blast on a motorway near Palermo in Sicily also killed the judge's wife and three police escorts and sparked outrage around the world.
Giuseppe Barranca and Cristoforo Cannella were sentenced to life in prison for their role. Cosimo D'Amato received 30 years in jail.
Spatuzza provided crucial evidence about how the mobsters plotted to take their revenge on Falcone over his attempts to break up their syndicate.
He told a Milan court earlier this year that he had been responsible for around 40 deaths during his time in Cosa Nostra.
He is currently serving life in prison for his role in six bomb attacks in 1992 and 1993 but may well end up being released under Italy's system of reducing incarceration terms once individuals are no longer deemed a threat to society.
Two months after Falcone was murdered, another judge, Paolo Borsellino was killed by a car bomb. The two men have posthumously become national heroes, martyrs to the country's largely unsuccessful attempts to rid itself of the scourge of organised crime.
Both killings were ordered by Toto Riina, the Cosa Nostra "boss of bosses" who was captured the year after the slaying of the judges. Now 84, the gangster known as "the beast", is currently serving multiple life sentences in a maximum security prison.
In another echo of Italy's bleak recent history, a couple convicted for involvement in the 1980 bombing of Bologna railway station, which left 85 people dead, were Wednesday ordered to pay damages of just over two billion euros to the state.
Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro received multiple life sentences in 1988 that were confirmed by Italy's highest court in 1995. Despite the heavy sentences, the couple, who married in prison, have been free for most of the last decade thanks to Italy's generous parole system.
They have expressed regret for their involvement in other terrorist acts but have always denied any involvement in the Bologna attack during their time in far-right group Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Nuclei).
The judge who ruled the couple have to pay damages called the Bologna bombing "an act whose gravity is without precedent in Italian history."
Paolo Bolognesi of the victims group Vittime 2 Agosto added: "It is wonderful news. It means the massacre will remain a permanent and indelible stain on them for ever."
