Via D'Amelio massacre, searches of former police chief Giovanni De Gennaro

In the early hours of this morning the soldiers of the Special Operational Group (ROS) of the Carabinieri carried out six search decrees in the province of Rome, issued by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Caltanissetta and in particular by the pool investigating the '92 massacres. The inspections are part of the investigations into the misdirection linked to the Via D'Amelio massacre and the mysterious disappearance of judge Paolo Borsellino's red agenda. The searches concerned, among other things, premises available to the former police chief Gianni De Gennaro, the repentant Salvatore Contorno, De Gennaro's collaborator Donatella Peruzzi, his protection officer Massimo Carnicelli and De Gennaro's former collaborator Francesco Pacetto, former police inspector.

The prosecutor's office: "The exact chain of passages of the Borsellino stock exchange has been reconstructed"

The Caltanissetta prosecutor's office claimed to have reconstructed "the exact chain of passages of Judge Borsellino's bag, which ended up in La Barbera's office immediately after the explosion without any report ever being drawn up". Previous sentences have already established that "the acceleration of the massacre in Via D'Amelio, the disappearance of the red agenda" and the "minimalist" management of the investigations - imparted by La Barbera and endorsed by the then Caltanissetta Prosecutor pro tempore, Giovanni Tinebra - served to facilitate different and more composite structures of interest and power of the mafia association". Judge Borsellino's bag had ended up in La Barbera's office immediately after the explosion, without any report recording its presence, and presumably remained there until the beginning of November 1992, when it was formally found. Furthermore, the investigators claim to have documented "the presumable belonging of the then Prosecutor of Caltanissetta Giovanni Tinebra, dominus of the investigations into the massacres, to covered Masonic contexts".

In-depth analysis

Borsellino's memory between oblivion, exploitation and "editing"

"Documents on the Via D'Amelio massacre hidden and destroyed"

"Since the first investigations there has been an - apparently unjustified - concern on the part of De Gennaro, both for the present investigation, which in September 2023 had been partly made known following the searches ordered against the members of Arnaldo La Barbera's family, and for the progress of the 'Misdirection' trial underway at the Court of Caltanissetta", writes the Caltanissetta prosecutor De Luca. "Finally, many elements have been collected from which it is possible to deduce that De Gennaro himself, according to the Prosecutor's Office, having been informed about certain details relating to the present investigation, actively worked, again according to the Caltanissetta Prosecutor's Office - making use not only of his protection officer Massimo Carnicelli, but also of another very close collaborator of his, Francesco Pacetto, former Police Inspector and presumably in service at the DIS (on this last point there are investigations in progress), now retired -, to order to prevent Salvatore Contorno from making statements to the Caltanissetta prosecutor's office. There are also elements, again at the level of concrete hypotheses, regarding further conduct carried out by De Gennaro who, this time making use of another faithful collaborator of his, Donatella Peruzzi - also in the DIS force - would have hidden some documentation, purposely better hidden in the aftermath of the aforementioned searches in September 2023; R.O.S. (found because it had been, by chance, stolen by unknown persons during the investigation) concerning, among other things, judicial documents and press articles relating to the arrest of Salvatore Contorno in 1989. This would also have occurred in relation to the destruction of other documentation which, according to the interested parties, was particularly sensitive for these reasons Peruzzi, Massimo Carnicelli, Salvatore Contorno, Francesco Pacetto and other subjects in various capacities close to the aforementioned De Gennaro. It is almost superfluous to underline that the above-mentioned people are not under investigation for the crime of massacre, reiterating that the aforementioned searches were carried out in a proceeding against unknown persons for the Via d'Amelio massacre".

In-depth analysis

Via D'Amelio massacre, tribute to Paolo Borsellino in Palermo. PHOTO

Focus also on the "crow of Palermo" who delegitimized Falcone

"In the wake of what was established by the provisions, now final, which defined the Borsellino Quater and 'misdirection' trials, further investigations were carried out which allowed us to better outline those which constitute the precursors to the events which occurred in 1992, namely: the arrest of Salvatore Contorno, which took place in San Nicola l'Arena (Palermo) at dawn on 26 May 1989 in circumstances which were never completely clarified neither by the local Flying Squad, which carried out the blitz, nor by the Central Anti-Crime Unit of the State Police, which at that time managed the collaborator, then directed by the official Giovanni De Gennaro", explains the press release. The prosecutor's office then points to the story of the "crow of Palermo": the anonymous writings that delegitimized Giovanni Falcone and which, according to judicial documents, would have encouraged the implementation of the failed attack in Addaura against the same magistrate, which occurred a few days later.