State-Mafia Pact

The term State-Mafia Pact (Italian: trattativa Stato-mafia) describes an alleged series of negotiations between important Italian government officials and Cosa Nostra members that began following the 1992 and 1993 terror attacks by the Sicilian Mafia with the aim to reach a deal to stop the attacks; some sources suggest that negotiations began even earlier. The supposed cornerstone of the deal was to end "the Massacre Season" in return for a reduction in the detention measures provided for by Italy's Article 41-bis prison regime. 41-bis was the law by which the Antimafia pool, led by judge Giovanni Falcone, had condemned hundreds of mafia members to the "hard prison regime". The negotiation hypothesis has been the subject of long investigations, both by the courts and in the media. In 2021, the Court of Appeal of Palermo acquitted a close associate of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, while upholding the sentences of the mafia bosses. This ruling was confirmed by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation in 2023.