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Giuseppe Maria Ayala has had a diverse and eventful career, navigating both the judiciary and politics while facing various controversies along the way.
Giuseppe Ayala’s Biography
Giuseppe Maria Ayala was born on May 18, 1945, in Caltanissetta, Italy. He comes from a noble family that owned some solfare.
Ayala attended Caltanissetta’s Ruggero Settimo classical high school. After finishing his education, he graduated in law from the University of Palermo and began working as a lawyer at the legal practise of Girolamo Bellavista, one of Palermo’s most well-known criminal lawyers.
Ayala entered the judiciary and began his career as a magistrate in Mussomeli before becoming the Republic of Palermo’s deputy prosecutor. Although he was not a member of the anti-mafia pool, he worked closely with investigators to bring the results of their investigations to trial and secure convictions. Vincenzo Geraci, Domenico Signorino, and Giusto Sciacchitano were among his renowned colleagues.
Ayala was a public prosecutor during the first maxi-trial and eventually became a Supreme Court Counsellor.
However, in 1989, the Superior Council of the Judiciary decided to transfer Ayala to another position owing to environmental incompatibility.
After his colleague Alberto Di Pisa accused him of being the major person responsible for his incrimination as the author of anonymous letters challenging the anti-mafia pool, he made this decision. Ayala was also accused of having large debt with the Banco di Sicilia, which prompted further investigation.
The decision to relocate Ayala sparked much debate and controversy, and he promptly filed an appeal with the Sicilian TAR, which halted the relocation.
Despite the difficulties, Ayala persisted in his career and entered politics. He was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1992, just before the killings of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. After the Tangentopoli affair caused a schism in the party, Ayala joined the Democratic Alliance and retained his seat in the Chamber of Deputies in 1994.
After the Democratic Alliance disbanded, he joined Antonio Maccanico’s Democratic Union movement and was elected to the Senate in 1996. During the Prodi I, D’Alema I, and D’Alema II regimes, Ayala served as Undersecretary at the Ministry of Justice.
Despite the controversy surrounding the move from parliament to the court, Ayala returned to the judiciary in 2006, after finishing his political career. He was a civil section councillor at the Court of Appeal of L’Aquila from 2006 to 2011, following which he retired.
Ayala has been embroiled in a number of issues over his career. A ten-year-old photograph of Ayala with mafia boss Michele Greco resurfaced in 1988, causing a commotion. During the Sicilian Tangentopoli investigations in 1993, Ayala was accused of illegally financing political groups.
He was found not guilty on all counts. Ayala was investigated in 1997 after allegations that he worked with mafia groups to recover stolen statuettes.
Despite the fact that the theft occurred, there was no evidence of Ayala’s involvement. In 2014, a justice collaborator accused Ayala of being corrupted by the mafia in order to achieve reduced punishments during the maxi trial, but Ayala filed a slander suit against the collaborator and won the case in 2020.
The disappearance of Paolo Borsellino’s red agenda is one of the most noteworthy disputes surrounding Ayala. Borsellino’s personal notebook, in which he had documented critical information on the mafia, went lost after his assassination.
Ayala, who was among the first to arrive at the scene of the slaughter, provided contradictory testimony about the bag containing the red diary. The diary, which included crucial evidence, has yet to be discovered.
Aside from his professional activities, Ayala has written several books. “The War of the Righteous,” a co-written novel with Felice Cavallaro, was released in 1993.
He went on to write “Those Who Are Afraid Die Every Day: My Years with Falcone and Borsellino” in the same year, as well as “Too Many Coincidences: Mafia, Politics, Deviant Apparatus, Justice: Dangerous Relationships and Lost Opportunities” in the same year.
Who Is Giuseppe Ayala’s First Wife?
Details about Giuseppe Ayala’s first wife are unknown as there is no information about her currently.
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