even a dead man under the blows of the executioner

There are not the two life sentences for voluntary homicide requested in May by the Public Ministry, but for 33 defendants in one of the trials derived from the investigations into the so-called bone breakers, the sentences of the Giulia Malaponte gup, although inflicted with the abbreviated rite, they are tough. The judge, however, also decided to acquit 5 other people, who by the accusation were involved in the fraud of the maxi insurance, based on false accidents but with actually injured victims, throwing them bricks of tuff and dumbbells, many times without nor even being anesthetized.

The condemned will have to serve in prison for about two centuries: sentences confirmed by the investigations of the mobile team, coordinated by the assistant prosecutors Ennio Petrigni, Salvatore De Luca and Sergio Demontis, together with the alternates Daniele Sansone and Alfredo Gagliardi. The trial was born from the bombing “Tantalus” in August 2018 and “Tantalus bis” the following April. And it all started with the death of a Tunisian, Yacoub Hadri, on January 9, 2017 on a street in Brancaccio. Apparently, the young man did not appear to have survived a car accident, but an assessment revealed instead that the injuries would not have been compatible with the dynamics of the hypothetical accident. This is how the high turnover of the hoax incidents was discovered and that Hadri had actually died from injuries sustained by one of the bone-breaker gangs. Hence the request for two life sentences for murder for Gesuè Giglio and Alfredo Santoro. However, a thesis that the judge did not accept.

Among those convicted are the alleged leaders of the different groups, but also a lawyer, Graziano D’Agostino, a self-described lawyer, Giovanna Lentini, and an insurance expert, Mario Fenech, as well as several defendants who have dealt precisely with fractures of arms and legs. people with serious financial difficulties or drug addiction problems. The fake victims were paid a few hundred euros to remedy even the permanent injuries, while the gangs, according to the investigators, would have moved at least 12 million euros.

The cruelty and cynicism that emerged from the wiretapping had opened a gash in a Palermo made of misery and greed, where to eat, to give milk to their children, people were willing to lose a limb and suffer unheard of suffering. .

Here are the sentences imposed by the judge: Gesuè Giglio 16 years and 4 months, Alfredo Santoro 15 years, Francesco Faija known as “Berlusconi” 14 years and 10 months, Rita Mazzanares 8 years and 10 months, Mario Modica and Giuseppe Portanova 7 years and 10 months each, Gioacchino Campora 7 and a half years, Francesco La Monica 7 years and 2 months, Letizia Silvestri 7 years, Massimiliano Vultaggio 6 and a half years, Carlo Alicata, Salvatore Di Liberto and Antonino Santoro 6 years each, Graziano D ‘Agostino 5 years and 4 months, Giuseppe Mazzanares and Domenico Schillaci 4 years and 10 months each, Filippo Anceschi known as “el enano” 4 and a half years, Salvatore Arena 4 years, Antonio Giglio, Cristian Pasca and Maria Silvestri 3 years and 10 months each, Monia Camarda 3 years and 8 months, Mario Fenech and Giovanna Lentini 3 years and 4 months each, Vincenzo Cataldo 3 years and 2 months, Gaetano Alicata and Giovanni Napoli 3 years each, Piero Orlando 2 years and 10 months, Salvatore Di Gregorio, Isidoro Faija and Vittorio Filippone 2 and a half years each, Alfonso Macaluso 2 years and 4 months, and finally, the lowest sentence for María Mazzanares: 2 years.

Instead, Michele Di Lorenzo, Giuseppe Rosciglione, Antonino Saviano, Gaetano Girgenti and Salvatore Mazzanares were exonerated. The judge also ordered that the convicts compensate the insurance companies that had filed a civil action, as well as Hadri’s mother.

After the arrests of “Tantalus”, three of the suspects – the Civic nurse Antonia Conte, Salvatore La Piana and Francesco Mocciaro – decided to collaborate with the magistrates and it was thanks to their revelations that the “Tantalo bis” investigation was born. So far there are five investigations that the Public Ministry has dedicated to the line of breaking bones.