The photo-report, which consists of images from the archive of the Italian news agency ANSA and the private albums of the two Magistrates, illustrates the highlights of their lives, covering the period of their adolescence and education, the city of Palermo in the ’70s and ’80s, the creation of the anti-mafia pool, the “maxi-trial”, and the cowardly terrorist attacks of Capaci and Via D’Amelio. At the same time, the exhibition describes the active reaction of civil society and the State as a whole to the tragic events of 1992, which prompted the development of new methods in the fight against criminal organizations in our Country. In addition, the exposition sheds light on the “Nave della legalità” (“Boat of legality”), an event symbolizing the fight against all mafias, yearly organized every May 23 by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research – in commemoration of the death of Giovanni Falcone – to educate the new generations to the pivotal role of legality.
The opening, which was attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps, the Council of Europe, as well as the European Court of Human Rights, was introduced by the Italian Ambassador, Marco Marsilli, and the Public Prosecutor of Palermo, Francesco Lo Voi. For the Council, took the floor the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Guido Raimondi, and the Deputy Secretary General, Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni. All the speakers highlighted the importance that Falcone and Borsellino attached to the rule of law and the key-role of Italian institutions wherever the mafias were able to take upper hand. Their premature death is still an open wound in the Italian history. Nevertheless, the inheritance of their work, innovative also in the choice of international cooperative investigation as an instrument to combat “Cosa Nostra”, is still a central tool in the fight against organized crime, both in our Countries and at the Council if Europe.
The exhibition will remain open until the 20th of June.
