Antonino Saetta

Antonino Saetta (Canicattì, 25 October 1922 - Caltanissetta, 25 September 1988) was an Italian magistrate, assassinated by Cosa Nostra together with his son Stefano.

Biography

Origins and education

The third of five children, he obtained the classical high school diploma at the state high school of Caltanissetta and in 1940 he enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the University of Palermo. After graduating in 1944, with 110 cum laude, he won the competition for Judicial Auditor and entered the Magistracy in 1948.[1]

Career

In the first assignment he was placed in Acqui Terme with the functions of Pretore first and subsequently of investigating judge at the Court. He then moved as Court Judge to Caltanissetta in 1955 and to Palermo in 1960, and from 1969 to 1971 he was Attorney of the Republic at the Court of Sciacca, then again in Palermo, as Councilor of the Court of Appeal.[2]

In the period 1976-1978 he was Counselor at the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Genoa, where he also dealt with certain processes of national resonance (Red Brigades; Seagull arson), later returning to Palermo.[3]

Subsequently, in the period 1985–1986, he was President of the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Caltanissetta and it is here that he dealt, for the first time in his career, with an important Mafia trial, that relating to the massacre in which the judge Rocco Chinnici, whose defendants were, among others, the "Greco" of Ciaculli, undisputed leaders of the mafia at the time, and yet cleansed. The trial ended with an aggravation of sentences and convictions with respect to the first degree judgment. Antonino Saetta was then again in Palermo, as President of the I section of the Court of Assizes of Appeal. Here he dealt with other important mafia trials, in particular he presided over the trial relating to the killing of the Carabinieri captain Emanuele Basile,[4] which saw the dangerous emerging leaders Vincenzo Puccio, Armando Bonanno and Giuseppe Madonia accused.

Death

A few months after the conclusion of this trial, and a few days after the filing of the motivation for the sentence that had sentenced the defendants to life imprisonment, Saetta was murdered, together with his son Stefano, around midnight on 25 September 1988, on the Caltanissetta-Agrigento road, returning to Palermo, after having witnessed the baptism of a grandchild in Canicattì.[5][6]

Investigations and trials

In 1996, the Mafia bosses Salvatore Riina, Francesco Madonia, and the killer Pietro Ribisi were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court of Assizes of Caltanissetta for the heinous double murder. The sentence, confirmed in subsequent degrees of trial, became final.[7]

The motive for the assassination was considered to be threefold: "punishing" a magistrate who, due to his firmness in conducting the Basile trial, and, previously, the Chinnici trial, had made the strong mafia pressure exerted in vain; "Tame" with a striking killing, the other judicial magistrates then engaged in important mafia trials; "Preventing" the probable appointment of a difficult magistrate, such as Antonino Saetta, as President of the so-called "Maxiprocesso" of appeal by the Mafia.[8]

Legacy

Antonino Saetta is remembered every year on 21 March on the Day of Memory and Commitment of Libera, the network of associations against the mafias, which on this date reads the long list of the names of the victims of the mafia and mafia phenomena. The garrison of "Libera di Acqui Terme" is dedicated to him and his son Stefano, the place where he held his first assignment.

In 2020, 32 years after the massacre, the documentary film "L'Abbraccio. Storia di Antonino e Stefano Saetta", written and directed by Davide Lorenzano, produced by Cristian Patanè, with the direction of photography by Daniele Ciprì, is the first cinematographic work on the subject that traces the professional and personal profile of the magistrate, the unpublished one of Stefano and of the father-son relationship, through exclusive content, the animated graphic novel and interviews with family, friends and Antonino Di Matteo who had to conduct the investigation and the trial, reconstructing the motive and execution, obtaining the sentence to life imprisonment for those responsible.[9]

Did you know?
  • It is sometimes said that Stefano was severely disabled, however at the time of death he was young with a healthy constitution and sportsman (he was an excellent swimmer), but he had suffered in adolescence from psychiatric disorders that had forced him to abandon his studies and be recognized as a civil invalidity. However, in the last years of his life he had not suffered any relapses and appeared substantially cured. The discovery of the invalidity card among his documents led some reporters into error.[10]
  • Even the film Law of courage, centered on the figure of judge Rosario Livatino, erroneously represents Stefano Saetta as a disabled person in a vegetative state, and was criticized by the family for the untrue portrait of his father Antonino.[11]

References
  1. "Giustizia per un popolo di onesti". repubblica.it.
  2. "L'ultimo massacro firmato mafia". repubblica.it.
  3. Stefano Saetta. "Antonino Saetta magistrato scomodo nemico dichiarato dei centri di potere". Associazione Amici del giudice Rosario Livatino.
  4. "L'ultimo massacro firmato mafia". repubblica.it.
  5. "L'ultimo massacro firmato mafia". repubblica.it.
  6. "Giustizia per un popolo di onesti". repubblica.it.
  7. "La storia del giudice Saetta fra docufilm e graphic novel". repubblica.it.
  8. "Due delitti annunciati". repubblica.it.
  9. Stefano Saetta. "Antonino Saetta magistrato scomodo nemico dichiarato dei centri di potere". Associazione Amici del giudice Rosario Livatino.
  10. "Due delitti annunciati". repubblica.it.
  11. Stefano Saetta. "Antonino Saetta magistrato scomodo nemico dichiarato dei centri di potere". Associazione Amici del giudice Rosario Livatino.
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