After Italian President Giorgio Napolitano gave testimony in a major anti-Mafia trial on Tuesday, Euronews talks to one of four prosecutors in the case, Nino Di Matteo.
Ten people are on trial, charged with arranging secret talks between the Italian state and the Mafia during the 1990s, around the time two anti-Mafia judges were murdered in huge bomb attacks.
Prosecutors in Sicily allege that senior politicians stepped in to stem the tide of violence by holding negotiations with mob bosses.
A former interior minister and Mafia Godfather Toto Riina are on trial.
Napolitano’s has not been accused of any crime.
Nino Di Matteo told euronews how, at one point, the mafia intensified its attacks as a way to increase the willingness of the state to negotiate.