Share

16 May 2014 The Trapani Assize Court, chaired by Angelo Pellino, sentenced the Trapani bosses Vincenzo Virga and Vito Mazzara to life imprisonment, accused of the murder of the sociologist Mauro Rostagno, murdered in Valderice, in the province of Trapani, on 26 September of 1988.



The council chamber of the judges of the Assize Court lasted two and a half days.

The college condemned the two defendants to pay compensation to the civil parties, including the Order of Journalists, the Saman community, of which Rostagno was the founder, the sociologist's family members and the Press Association.



The Court also ordered the transmission to the Public Prosecutor's Office of the depositions of a series of witnesses including the former non-commissioned officer of the carabinieri Beniamino Cannas and the editor of the Rtc television station, Caterina Ingrasciotta, private television from which Rostagno denounced Cosa Nostra and his links with deviant Freemasonry.   



The trial lasted for 67 hearings during which 144 witnesses were heard and four expert opinions were carried out. For both defendants, prosecutors Gaetano Paci and Francesco Del Bene had asked for a life sentence.