The funeral of Francesco Meloni, Genoa’s farewell to the prosecutor: “It was he who defended the G8 inquiries”

Genoa- «Our work is clear to everyone’s eyes. Our investigations are aimed at ascertaining whether crimes have been committed regardless of the belonging of the perpetrators ».

Prosecutor Francesco Meloni was simply this. And he revealed it in all its power in 2001, when Francesco Cossiga, at the time a senator for life after having been Minister of the Interior and President of the Republic, tried to pickax the Genoa Public Prosecutor’s Office which had registered the carabiniere Mario Placanica in the register of suspects. , the soldier who killed Carlo Giuliani during the G8 clashes, and 45 policemen for the beatings in the street, in the Bolzaneto barracks and at the Diaz. Cossiga branded Meloni, who in reality has always been an exponent of the Unit for the Constitution or the moderate current of the togas, as an “honorary black bloc”. And the magistrate limited himself to defending the independence of the work coordinated by him and conducted by his substitutes, reiterating that in his eyes the former Head of State at that juncture he spoke “out of turn”.

Francesco Meloni was the guide of Genoese prosecutors from 1997 to 2006 and died at the age of 92. He lived in the Castelletto neighborhood, he had recently been hit by Covid: he had previously lost his wife and left his daughters Maria Gavina, judge in the Court of Appeal, and Francesca, journalist and teacher.

Originally from Nuoro, after having taken the first steps of his career in Sardinia, he has almost always worked in the Ligurian capitalin the staff of the investigating magistracy, dealing with important investigations on mafia and terrorism in the 90s.

Processes that crossed the investigations on the seizure of the ship Achille Lauro by a Palestinian commando and those on the death of Pietro Scaglione, the Palermo prosecutor killed by Cosa Nostra in 1971: for the latter case he supported interrogations with Tommaso Buscetta and, in the United States, with Tano Badalamenti.
Above all: Meloni was the head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the period of the hunt for the serial killer Donato Bilancia, then arrested and held responsible for seventeen murders, and in the days and months and in the first five years that followed, as foreseen by the G8.

And it was (also) in that juncture that his ability to mediate was crucialfinding himself facing the pressures of politics and the discouragement of public opinion, marked by the guerrilla warfare, the death in the square of a twenty-year-old boy, the police batons on unarmed demonstrators.
«For us he was a sure point of reference, with sometimes harsh character traits, a man who, after profound discussions, knew how to make you change your mind or modify it himself. And yes, the pressures at that time were a lot. But Meloni was able to put the solidity and work of the office, understood in its institutional role, before the personalization of individuals. He is not an extremist, if anything a person capable of initiating a true dialogue ».

Enrico Zucca, now deputy attorney general, was the prosecutor who investigated Libra, obtaining his confession during an interrogation that lasted one night, and who together with his colleague Francesco Cardona Albini conducted the investigation into the massacre at the Diaz school, which ended with significant convictions among the former leaders of the Italian police. And the memory of him hinges in particular on the role of guarantor, “guide and friend”, which Meloni was able to interpret.
Words on the same wavelength are spoken by Francesco Pinto, who was in turn regent of the Genoese prosecutor’s office for the last two years, before the recent settlement of Nicola Piacente. He uses the term “shield” to evoke the image of Meloni who drains the attempts to influence the investigations, and fixes another characteristic that is sometimes vacillating among the magistrates: “While knowing Genoa and Liguria in depth, where almost his entire professional career, his origin from another territory and the clear demarcation line drawn with any area of ​​regional and city power, have allowed him to stand independently, and thus to evaluate the investigative path to follow “. Pinto concludes: «You could share his determinations and his actions or not, but he always had the feeling that he was dealing with a loyal person. The bitter discussion of the day before turned into support, without a grudge being held on either side ».
Alessandro Vaccaro, criminal lawyer and president for two terms of the Bar Association (now directed by Luigi Cocchi) di Meloni was technically an opponent, they even faced each other when the classrooms were still in the Doge’s Palace. And there is no doubt that when the magistrate left the leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office, relations with the lawyer were at least tense. «And however – he reiterates – we had the certainty of having a clear, concrete, correct interlocutor».
The funeral will be celebrated this morning at 10 in the church of San Nicola uphill of the Madonnetta, close to Corso Firenze.