Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – arrested in Palermo last January 16 after thirty years on the run – gave up this morning from appearing at the trial in which he is charged as instigator of the massacres in Capaci and via D'Amelio , in which in 1992 the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and the agents of the escort lost their lives. The trial is celebrated in the bunker hall of the Caltanissetta prison.
The court presided over by the president of the court of appeals, Maria Grazia Vagliasindi, communicated that after the renunciation of the mandate of her lawyer, Messina Denaro has not appointed another one. Therefore Calogero Montante was designated as public defender: the same lawyer, however, made it known that he wanted to give up the position since in the past he was the public defender of the false pentito Vincenzo Scarantino, in the Borsellino Quater trial and in the Appeal trial and because he holds the position of honorary deputy prosecutor at the Palermo prosecutor's office. For these reasons the question of incompatibility was raised. The Court of Assizes of Appeal withdrew to dissolve the reservation and decide on the request for renunciation made by the lawyer. Yesterday it was the granddaughter of the boss, the lawyer Lorenza Guttadauro, who resigned the mandate.
The audio-video link with the L'Aquila prison had been set up in the courtroom. Even in the last hearing on January 19, three days after his arrest, the boss of Castelvetrano had renounced to participate in the trial .
(Unioneonline/F)
