"I am the only Italian magistrate to whom Parliament has expressly dedicated a law. A law contra personam that has deprived me of a right: that of competing, on an equal footing with other colleagues, for the position of National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor. Leading figures from the center-right have publicly stated that my exclusion was intended as “compensation” for Senator for Life Giulio Andreotti, whom I had unjustly “persecuted” with the investigation I opened against him when I was Chief Prosecutor in Palermo. The truth has been turned on its head. That investigation, in fact, led to a ruling by the Court of Appeal of Palermo, later confirmed by the Court of Cassation in a definitive and unchangeable manner, which considers the crime of criminal association with the Cosa Nostra to have been “committed” and “concretely recognizable” on the part of the defendant until the spring of 1980. The ruling is not a conviction because it acknowledges that the crime is time-barred, while for the charges after 1980, the senator for life is acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence. These are the facts. Yet, a certain political class had no doubt about who should be compensated and who should be punished."