Rostagno: Cassation confirms appeal, life imprisonment in Virga

The sentence of life imprisonment for Vicenzo Virga, the boss of Trapani believed to be the instigator of the murder of the sociologist and journalist Mauro Rostagno, which took place 32 years ago in the Trapani area, was confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Instead, the appeal of the Palermo Public Prosecutor's Office against the acquittal pronounced on appeal in favor of the alleged killer Vito Mazzara was rejected.

The Pg of the Supreme Court had asked to cancel Mazzara's acquittal.

Also on appeal, on the basis of what was ascertained in the first instance, the thesis that Mauro Rostagno was eliminated because from the screens of a local broadcaster had been confirmed with the sentencing of the principal to life imprisonment and despite the acquittal of the alleged hitman. the veil has been lifted on the interests of Cosa Nostra in Trapani, intertwined with politics, business and occult powers.

Vincenzo Virga, considered the central figure in the direction of the crime, thirty years ago was the "provincial" representative of the mafia dome: the ambush to Rostagno who was aboard his Duna, took place in Lenzi, near Trapani, on 26 September 1988 Rostagno was first hit by car and then finished.

Before dying he managed to curl up and save the secretary Monica Serra who was at his side.

The prosecution was convinced that the gun, broken by the explosions, had been held by Vito Mazzara, boss of Valderice: they seemed to bring him and an unidentified biological relative the traces of DNA found in the weapon, for this reason it was inflicted on him to life imprisonment.

The sentence was added to another life sentence for the 1995 killing of custodial officer Giuseppe Montalto.

On appeal, Mazzara's lawyers questioned the reliability of the scientific examinations.

And the Assize Court of Appeal, after having acquired a manual of the criteria for interpreting the traces of DNA, opted for the acquittal, overturning the first instance judgment.

The second degree trial however confirmed the thesis according to which Rostagno carried out an "exemplary journalistic work" from the Radio Tele Cine broadcaster that annoyed the mafia.

Rostagno, after his studies in sociology in Trento and the years of the protest, had arrived in Trapani to found the community of Saman for drug addicts.

With his interventions and inquiries for Rtc, the journalist-sociologist had become a target for the Cosa Nostra.

'Camurria', that is, pain in the ass, had been addressed by Francesco Messina Denaro, father of the superlatant Matteo.

Before reaching these conclusions, the judiciary had clashed with prolonged omissions, inexplicable underestimations, misdirections.

Even the attempt to bring the matrix of the crime back to private stories within the Saman community.

Only 25 years later comes the turning point with the indictment of Virga and Mazzara, and the reconstruction of the context of the ambush has finally taken a precise direction.

Rostagno's daughter, Maddalena, on November 8 gave the news of the confirmation of today's hearing in the Cassation.

"I will live the final act closed in my bedroom and not in a courtroom" wrote Maddalena who is now 47 years old and was a girl when her father was killed.

"Dad, I could tell you what I was doing when I was confirmed, not even Kafka, always the same stories of huge ego and stalks ... My Madonna, how much I need to breathe now with you next to me", Rostagno's daughter vented. 32 years old awaits justice.