The Court of Cassation, rejecting the appeals of the Palermo Attorney General and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, confirmed the compensation for unjust detention of 285 thousand euros against Bruno Contrada, the former number two of Sisde arrested and then convicted for external competition in mafia association .
A conviction that the European Court of Human Rights later declared illegitimate.
The comment by Contrada's defense attorney, Stefano Giordano : «After eight long years, the two sentences of the European Court of Human Rights have been put into execution, which have established that the proceeding against Dr. Bruno Contrada has been illegitimate and illegitimate beginning was the sentence, totally served by my client. The Cassation has put a tombstone to a shameful and putrid media and judicial massacre that led us to the final victory . We have arrived at this final result only because Doctor Contrada remained alive despite all the suffering inflicted on him. As for our study, for the tenacity and determination as well as the faith in God that has always accompanied me despite so many sad moments".
"Today is the day to enjoy the procedural victory - he added - but starting tomorrow we will oppose to the competent judicial authorities all the violations of the presumption of innocence committed by members of the judicial order and by certain ideological and politically oriented journalism. I also want to thank the lawyer Cristiana Donizetti, my wife, for her fundamental contribution, without whose precious work it would not have been possible to achieve this result».
Contrada was accused on the basis of the statements of some pentiti, including Gaspare Mutolo, Tommaso Buscetta and Salvatore Cancemi . The sentence of the European Court of Human Rights came in 2014, when the former 007 had already served his sentence in full.
(Unioneonline/L)
