ROME - Giovanni Brusca, the mafia boss turned informant, has been released from prison after 25 years, causing great upset for the families of his victims’ families.

  Brusca, 64, was an important figure within Sicily’s Cosa Nostra before his arrest in 1996. As an assassin for ‘the boss of bosses’ Totò Riina, he confessed to the killings of over 100 people, including the Capaci bombing on May 23, 1992, in which the magistrate Giovanni Falcone, along with his wife and three bodyguards, were killed. One of his many murders involved the drowning of a child in acid.

  He was released on Monday from the Rebibbia prison in Rome, and will now face four years of parole.

  Upon his release, Mario Falcone, the sister of the magistrate, said, “it is news that grieves me, but this is the law. A law, moreover, that my brother wanted, and so it must be respected.”

  She continued, “I only hope that the judiciary and law enforcement will remain vigilant so as to avoid the danger of him returning to crime, since we are talking about a person who has had a very tortuous path of collaboration with justice.”

  Tortuous, she explained, because the judiciary “have on many occasions expressed doubts on the completeness of his statements, especially those relating to property which, probably, has not all been confiscated: it is no longer the time for half-truths.”

  Tina Montinaro, the husband of one of the bodyguards killed in the Capaci bombing, said of Brusca’s release, if I knew who to ask, I would only have question. Why only a few days after May 23? Why had the highest offices of the state come to Palermo to commemorate Giovanni Falcone and my husband, if this decision was already made? It is the thing that upsets me most, the commemorate these valiant men, but he who killed them is free.”

  Nicola Morra, the President of the Parliamentary Antimafia Commission, warned that “at 64 [Brusca] has the ability to return to be immediately efficient, it is true that he remains on probation for four years, but I recall that there are 70 year olds who continue to lead clans of the mafia.”

  He went on to add that “the words of Tina Montinaro, in my opinion, have a morsel of truth, when one thing of the hypocrisy that accompanies so many official celebrations for 23 May… I am not outraged by the release of Brusca, a mafioso who served 25 years in prison, who collaborated with justice, I am outraged because even after 29 years we do not know the full truth about Capaci.”

  After his release on Monday, the 2016 video resurfaced of a masked Brusca asking for forgiveness from the families of his victims. The French documentary film maker Mosco Levi Bocault filmed Brusca in prison in 2016 for a film he released in 2018. In the video, Brusca is seen sat at a table wearing a ski mask and sunglasses to cover his face.

  “I reflected and I decided to give this interview, I don’t know where it will take me, I just hope to be understood,” Brusca began. “I want to come to terms with myself, the time has come to show my face. I’m sorry I can’t do so for safety reasons, but this is in the spirit and soul of doing so.

  “I want to express thanks for this opportunity to ask for forgiveness, a pardon from all the families of my victims, for whom I have created so much pain and sorrow. I have tried to make as much of a contribution as possible and give a small explanation to the many who are seeking truth and justice.”

  He went on to define Cosa Nostra as a “factory of death, neither more nor less.”

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