Mauro Rostagno was a multifaceted individual: sociologist, journalist, political activist with an eventful life. Born and raised in Turin, at the age of 19 he married and had a daughter. He then left his wife and travelled to Germany and France. Rostagno returned to Italy and in Trento enrolled in the faculty of sociology where – with Marco Boato, Renato Curcio, Mara Cagol and others – was very active in the Student Movement. In 1969 he was among the founders of Lotta Continua. In the seventies Rostagno was an authentic anti-authoritarian leader. After the dissolution of Lotta Continua, the Milanese alternative club “Macondo” started up. When it closed, Rostagno went to India and when he returned in 1981, he set up the Saman community near Trapani for the recovery of drug addicts. Rostagno also worked for the local radio station Radio Tele Cine through which he strongly denounced the collusion between the Mafia and local politics. On the evening of September 26th 1988 Mauro paid for his social passion and courage with his life.
Rostagno was assassinated inside his car in a Mafia ambush in the Lenzi district, not far from Saman. He was 46 years old.
(from Memorial Day of journalists killed by mafia and terrorism, Rome, 2008)
(Updated by Vincenzo Arena and Alberta Del Bianco – 3 May 2020)
- 2011 – 22 years after the murder, the trial opens of those accused of the murder of Mauro Rostagno: the alleged perpetrator Vito Mazzara and the alleged instigator Vincenzo Virga
- 2012 – The Palermo District anti-Mafia division (DDA) begins the investigations, parallel to the hearing started in 2011, to extend the investigations towards the identification of further perpetrators of the murder even “outside the strict sphereof its methodical execution”. The investigations of the DDA also attempt to deepen the responsibilities regarding the misdirections and investigative weaknesses following the Rostagno murder.
- 2014 – In the first instance, the Court of Assizes of Trapani establishes that the Rostagno murder has Mafia characteristics and sentences Vito Mazzara to life imprisonment, as executor and the boss Vincenzo Virga as instigator. The Court establishes that Mauro Rostagno was murdered because, through his journalism activity, he had lifted the veil on the interests of the Cosa Nostra in Trapani in the late 1980s.
- 2019 – On February 18th the Palermo Court of Assizes of Appeal, presided over by judge Matteo Frasca, amended the first instance sentences: the killer Vito Mazzara was acquitted but remains in prison serving other life sentences. The sentence was confirmed, however, for the boss Vincenzo Virga, as the operational instigator of the murder.
- 2019 – On February 22nd 13 defendants are sent to trial for perjury during the trial of first instance, including representatives of the police and minor witnesses.
- 2020 – In October, the investigating judge of Rome Andrea Fanelli, rejecting the request for setting aside the caerelating to the investigations into the misdirections and the investigative weaknesses relating to the murder of Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin, arranged to acquire the documents relating to the investigation into Rostagno’s death. The request was made to verify any possible links between the two cases.
- 2020 – The sentence of the Court of Cassation is pending for the Rostagno trial which began in the first instance in 2011. The date originally set for the 20th March 2020 has been postponed to the 27th November 2020, due to the health emergency caused by Coronavirus
