Giuseppe Impastato

Giuseppe Impastato

Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato (born January 5, 1948 in Cinisi , Province of Palermo ; † May 8/9, 1978 ibid) was a Sicilian politician and anti-Mafia fighter . During the election campaign for the Sicilian local elections in 1978 he was murdered by the Mafia in a bomb attack.

Life

Giuseppe Impastato's father, Luigi Impastato, was a member of the Mafia and was exiled during World War II. Most of his relatives were members of the mafia and his father's brother-in-law, Cesare Manzella , was the mafia boss in the area. Impastato experienced the first Mafia war, which also cost Manzella his life. In his youth, Impastato was thrown out of the house by his father after an argument with him. Then he began his activities against the mafia.

In 1965 he founded the newspaper L'idea socialista ( The Socialist Idea ) and joined the Partito Socialista Italiano d'Unità Proletaria ( Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity ). From 1968 he joined the New Left ( Nuova Sinistra ) and organized the protest of the farmers who were expropriated for the expansion of the Palermo airport. He also supported the protests of construction workers and the unemployed. In 1975 he founded the group Musica e cultura , which organized public cultural events. In 1976 he founded the self-financed independent radio station Radio Aut . With the help of the broadcaster, the business and crimes of the regional mafia and especially of the mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti were publicly denounced.

The show "Onda pazza" ( The Crazy Wave ), which satirically ridiculed the Mafia and mafia-like local politicians, made Giuseppe Impastato less and less popular with the Mafia. Meanwhile, his father had died in a car accident in unknown circumstances. While he was running for the Democrazia Proletaria list in local elections in 1978 , preparations were being made for his assassination. On the night of May 8th to 9th, he was killed by an explosives attack. Impastato was dragged out of the car while waiting at a level crossing, beaten to death with a stone and tied to the rails. An explosive device was then deposited next to him and detonated remotely.

The Giuseppe Impastato case

Shortly after his murder, the police and the judiciary assumed a planned terrorist attack in which the assassin would have killed himself. A letter was published a little later to confirm the fact that the explosion was a suicide. Due to the persistence of his mother Felicia Bartolotta Impastato, his brother Giovanni Impastato, his former companions and the Sicilian Documentation Center ( Centro siciliano di documentazione ), the suspicion of murder finally fell on the mafia. Countless complaints were filed and documents were collected, which resulted in a continuation of the judicial investigation.

In July 1983, Antonino Caponnetto passed a judgment confirming the involvement of the Mafia in the murder. In 1986 Impastato's mother published the book “La mafia in casa mia” (“The Mafia in my House”) and the dossier “Notissimi ignoti” (“Well-known Unknowns”), in which she names Mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti as the client. In January 1988, the Palermitan Court of Justice filed a complaint against Badalamenti, but it could not be prosecuted because he was already in an American prison for a 45-year sentence.

In May 1992 the case was due to be closed at the request of the Palermitan Court of Justice, as the persons responsible could no longer be identified. In May 1994 the Centro Impastato submitted an application to retrial. In addition, a people's petition was presented and a request for questioning of the Mafia dropout Salvatore Palazzolo . In March 1996 a new investigation into the circumstances of the case was initiated by the mother and brother Impastatos and the Centro Impastato. In July 1996, the investigation was resumed on the basis of the statement made by Palazzolo that Gaetano Badalamenti and Vito Palazzolo were heavily burdened. Badalamenti was arrested in November 1997.

Preliminary negotiations against Vito Palazzolo were opened on March 10, 1999, while Badalamenti refused preliminary negotiations. On January 26, 2000, Palazzolo applied for a shortening of the process. The trial of Palazzolo began on May 4, 2000, and that of Badalamenti on September 21, 2000. On March 5, 2001, Vito Palazzolo was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Badalamenti was sentenced to life imprisonment by the jury on April 11, 2002.

Afterlife

• In 1980 the Centro siciliano di documentazione was renamed Centro Impastato .
• In 2000 the film “ 100 Steps ” (Italian: “i Cento Passi”) is completed, which traces the story of Giuseppe Impastato (played by Luigi Lo Cascio ).
• In 2003 Pippo Pollina (active as a journalist against the Mafia before his career as a musician) published the song Centopassi .
• In 2004 the song I cento passi by the Modena City Ramblers (album ¡Viva la vida, muera la muerte!) Refers to Giuseppe Impastato by retelling his life, speaking out against the Cosa Nostra and calling for more courage against the Mafia.
• The Italian ska punk band Talco processed the life and work of Giuseppe Impastato several times in their songs. Both the song Radio Aut from the 2008 album Mazel Tov and the entire concept album La Cretina Commedia were dedicated to impastato .
• The Voice of Impastato (La voce di Impastato), 2013, director Ivan Vadori, http://lavocedimpastato.wordpress.com/

Web links

• http://www.centroimpastato.it/otherlang/aktivitate.php3