(ANSA) - Palermo Chief Prosecutor Piero Grasso has been nominated as the next head of Italy's Anti-Mafia operations.
Grasso, a 60-year-old with a 30-year record of fighting the Mafia, was named by the judiciary's governing body, the Superior Council of Magistrates, to replace Pier Luigi Vigna, who retired in August. Grasso had only one rival for the job, former Palermo chief prosecutor Giancarlo Caselli, who was ruled out when the government set a new age limit of 65.
Caselli, who may appeal against Grasso's nomination because of the government's move, had irked many conservatives with his unprecedented prosecution of seven-time premier Giulio Andreotti. Despite Caselli's widespread backing among progressives,
the CSM gave virtually unanimous backing to Grasso's appointment.
Even the leftwing faction in the body lauded a record that included securing 13 life terms in the first Mafia 'maxi-trial' in the late '80s. As Palermo prosecutor, Grasso tracked down a string of top mobsters and moved ever closer to the biggest catch of all, Bernardo Provenzano, a fugitive who has been running the Mafia for most of his 42 years in hiding.
Grasso has also alerted Italy to the risk that the Mafia is getting stronger again. Grasso worked on anti-Mafia cases in the early '90s and coordinated investigations into the 1992 bombs that murdered Italy's top two anti-Mafia invesigators and, a year later,
attacked cultural and religious targets in Rome and Milan. Caselli was also doing essential work on these cases, collecting some of the biggest Mafia scalps - Provenzano's fellow chieftain Toto' Riina and later Riina's heir Giovanni Brusca.
Caselli, who dared expose top political collusion with the Mafia, was regarded by many as the favourite for the job before the government raised the age limit.
