The mafia killing that ‘stained’ a nation: Italy remembers death of judge Paolo Borsellino

Thirty years on, Italy marks the occasion of the shocking murder

‘Borsellino is a hero of the Republic,’ said Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella (Sipa/Shutterstock)

In a country already reeling from the killing of an anti-mafia judge, the murder just weeks later of another judge who targeted the mob, Paolo Borsellino, shocked Italy to its core.

Borsellino and five of his bodyguards were killed just before 5pm on 19 July 1992, in the Sicilian city of Palermo, when a car bomb planted by the criminal organisation Cosa Nostra exploded.

The judge was on his way to see his mother.