• Palermo, blow to the Arenella mafia clan: 8 arrests, including widowed brother Schifani
  • Capaci, 23 May 1992, 17:58: remembering Falcone, Morvillo, Dicillo, Montinaro, Schifani
  • Capaci massacre: 22 years without Francesca, Giovanni, Vito, Rocco and Antonio

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February 19, 2020 His brother, Giuseppe Costa, was arrested yesterday in Palermo in an operation by the Dia on charges of having collected the lace for the Arenella clan. And she Rosaria Costa, widow of agent Vito Schifani, who died on May 23, 1992 in the Capaci massacre, has no words to define her pain. "I am devastated by all this," he told La Repubblica newspaper . "It's as if he died yesterday unfortunately," he says. Not even his brother names him, since yesterday locked up in the Palermitan prison of Pagliarelli on charges of having been "a reserved mafioso" at the service of the mafia gang of Arenella.

"I'm devastated," he repeats. "But the mafia will not stop me, I will continue my efforts" says in the newspaper Rosaria Costa who has lived far from Sicily for years. The words spoken on the day of the funeral of her husband and the other victims of the Capaci massacre ("I forgive you, but you must kneel") are still a symbol of rebellion and redemption.

Prayer during the funeral in Palermo
"I Rosaria Costa, widow of agent Vito Schifani, on behalf of all those who gave their lives for the state ... the state ... first of all I ask that justice be done. Now, turning to the mafia men ... because they are in here ... and not, but certainly not Christians, know that there is a possibility of forgiveness for you too. I forgive you, but you have to get on your knees, if you have the courage to change ... but they They do not change". The desperate prayer of Rosaria Costa made space between the coffins with inside the bodies torn apart by the TNT, the pity institutions and the anger and tears that had saturated the air in the basilica of San Domenico, in Palermo, during her husband Vito Schifani, escort agent killed in Capaci mafia ambush on 23 May 1992, together with colleagues Rocco Dicillo and Antonio Montinaro, judge Giovanni Falcone and wife Francesca Morvillo.

At the time, Rosaria was 22 years old and a 4 month old baby. His Vito was only 27 years old. Rosaria Costa's brother, Giuseppe, 48, is among the people arrested yesterday by the Dia of Palermo as part of the "White Shark" anti-mafia operation, "for being part - writes the investigating judge - of the Mafia family of Virgin Mary, maintaining relationships with mafia members of other families, in the primary interest of the mafia organization; for organizing and coordinating extortion activities, as well as extortion acts against entrepreneur merchants in the area ".