Palermo

Contrada: the last farewell to the former number three of the Sisde and symbol of a long judicial struggle

He was imprisoned for external complicity in mafia association after a long and controversial trial, only to be finally exonerated

13 March 2026

Bruno Contrada ritratto nel suo studio ANSA/FRANCO LANNINO

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Former police executive and Sisde number three Bruno Contrada, 94, has died in Palermo.

Napolitan but Palermo-born by adoption, he had pursued his career in Palermo and covered all the stages of the investigator's career from police manager to senior intelligence officer over a period of thirty years.

Accused of conspiring with the Mafia, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, which he finished serving in 2012.

Arrested on the eve of Christmas '92, the year of the Palermo massacres, then on trial for conspiracy to commit mafia-related crimes, Contrada was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on 5 April '96. Sentence overturned in the Court of Appeal on 4 May 2001: acquitted.

The Cassation sent the acts back to Palermo. Then the new 10-year sentence in 2006, after 31 hours in the Council Chamber of the Palermo Court of Appeal, and the Cassation's confirmation the following year. Then prison, house arrest and then the end of his sentence in October 2012.

Le due vite di Bruno Contrada, nei misteri di Cosa Nostra

The appeal to the Human Rights Court

Attempts to review the trial and appeals to the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights then began.

Italia was convicted twice: in February 2014 because the detainee should not have been in prison when he asked for house arrest due to his health condition, and then because the former policeman should not have been convicted for external complicity in mafia association because, at the time of the events (1979-1988), the crime was 'not sufficiently clear'.

The annulled judgment and the compensation

Contrada has always fought over the years to 'safeguard,' he said, 'the honour of a man of the institutions'. 'I want the honour they took from me, I have not lost faith in the State,' he repeated.

After another long judicial battle, the first section of the Court of Appeal of Palermo, overturning the decision of the second section, after the annulment with referral by the Court of Cassation, accepted Contrada's request for compensation for unjust imprisonment, reducing the amount of compensation to EUR 285,342. Judgment confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2023.