1989-92 criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
A hearing of the Maxi Trial
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The Maxi Trial (Italian: Maxiprocesso) was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 (the first day of the Corte d'Assise) to 30 January 1992 (the final day of the Supreme Court of Cassation), and was held in a bunker-style courthouse specially constructed for this purpose inside the walls of the Ucciardone prison.
Sicilian prosecutors indicted 475 mafiosi for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities, based primarily on testimonies given as evidence from former Mafia bosses turned informants, known as pentiti, in particular Tommaso Buscetta and Salvatore Contorno. Most were convicted, 338 people, sentenced to a total of 2,665 years, not including life sentences handed to 19 bosses; the convictions were upheld on 30 January 1992 by the Supreme Court of Italy, after the final stage of appeal. The importance of the trial was that the existence of Cosa Nostra was finally judicially confirmed.[1]
It is considered to be the most significant trial ever against the Sicilian Mafia, as well as the largest trial in world history.[2] Throughout and after the trial, several judges and magistrates were killed by the Mafia, including the two who led it—Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
^Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and the Procura of Palermo Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Peter Schneider & Jane Schneider, May 2002, essay is based on excerpts from Chapter Six of Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider, Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia and the Struggle for Palermo, Berkeley: U. of California Press
^Alfonso Giordano, Il maxiprocesso venticinque anni dopo – Memoriale del presidente, p. 68, Bonanno Editore, 2011. ISBN 978-88-7796-845-6
The MaxiTrial (Italian: Maxiprocesso) was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February...
Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the MaxiTrial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi...
testimonies of Mafia turncoats, like those of Buscetta to Judge Falcone at the MaxiTrial. The economic approach to explain the Mafia did illustrate the development...
information to Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone to prepare for the MaxiTrial, was extradited in December 1984 to the United States where he received...
His testimonies were crucial in the MaxiTrial against the Sicilian Mafia in Palermo and the Pizza Connection trial in New York City in the mid 1980s....
authorities. He provided important testimony at the 1986/87 MaxiTrial, the largest anti-Mafia trial in history. After the murder of the judges Giovanni Falcone...
judges, and administrators. It has lost influence on the heels of the Maxi-Trials, the campaign by magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and...
his organisation into open confrontation with the state. As part of the MaxiTrial of 1986, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for Mafia...
report was just the start of an investigation that was to become the MaxiTrial, where most of the leadership of the Mafia were tried for numberless crimes...
and right-wing terrorism known as the Years of Lead. During the 1986–87 MaxiTrial and after the testimony of Tommaso Buscetta, the term was increasingly...
Civil War Contemporary Republic Institutional referendum Istrian–Dalmatian exodus Economic Boom Years of Lead MaxiTrial Mani pulite Coronavirus pandemic...
Arcore). Berlusconi later became Prime Minister of Italy. During the MaxiTrial in the mid-1980s, the Mafia turncoats (pentiti) Tommaso Buscetta and Salvatore...
Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the MaxiTrial in 1986–1987, on 19 July 1992, Borsellino was killed by a car bomb in...
Borsellino. He testified at the MaxiTrial of 1986–87, along with Tommaso Buscetta. Sinagra claimed at the MaxiTrial that it was invariably his job to...
already been sentenced to life in absentia in the late 1980s as part of the MaxiTrial and in the 1990s for the two high-profile bombings (the Capaci massacre...
resign, and Andreotti's Sicilian faction was on the defensive. At the MaxiTrial against the Mafia in the mid 1980s, two of Lima's closest allies, the...
Civil War Contemporary Republic Institutional referendum Istrian–Dalmatian exodus Economic Boom Years of Lead MaxiTrial Mani pulite Coronavirus pandemic...
Civil War (1943–1945) Republic (1946–present) Years of Lead (1970s–1980s) MaxiTrial (1986–1992) Mani pulite (1992–2001) Great Recession (2007–2009) European...
objectives. CIDMA has several rooms for visitors: Room of the Folders of the MaxiTrial (Italian: Maxiprocesso di Palermo), the Room of the Messages, the Room...
Civil War Contemporary Republic Institutional referendum Istrian–Dalmatian exodus Economic Boom Years of Lead MaxiTrial Mani pulite Coronavirus pandemic...
The report was the start of an investigation that was to become the MaxiTrial, where most of the leadership of the Mafia were tried. He was massacred...
the king was held for life and protected him from ever being brought to trial for his actions. As the king was the sole owner of imperium in Rome at the...
the former mayor of Palermo, Salvo Lima, and Giulio Andreotti. At the MaxiTrial against the Sicilian Mafia in the mid-1980s, they were convicted of association...
Civil War (1943–1945) Republic (1946–present) Years of Lead (1970s–1980s) MaxiTrial (1986–1992) Mani pulite (1992–2001) Great Recession (2007–2009) European...
Civil War (1943–1945) Republic (1946–present) Years of Lead (1970s–1980s) MaxiTrial (1986–1992) Mani pulite (1992–2001) Great Recession (2007–2009) European...
Civil War (1943–1945) Republic (1946–present) Years of Lead (1970s–1980s) MaxiTrial (1986–1992) Mani pulite (1992–2001) Great Recession (2007–2009) European...
Civil War Contemporary Republic Institutional referendum Istrian–Dalmatian exodus Economic Boom Years of Lead MaxiTrial Mani pulite Coronavirus pandemic...
Civil War (1943–1945) Republic (1946–present) Years of Lead (1970s–1980s) MaxiTrial (1986–1992) Mani pulite (1992–2001) Great Recession (2007–2009) European...
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