“The French plane was under the Dc9, in order not to be intercepted by the radar of the Libyan plane with Gheddafi on board. Suddenly it launched a missile by mistake, since it wanted to hit the plane with the president of Libya”. This is what the Italian former President of the Republic, Francesco Cossiga, said in the documentary movie titled "Sopra e sotto il tavolo -What happened that night in the Ustica sky", above and under the table – what happened that night in the skies of Ustica, by journalists Giampiero Marrazzo and Gianluca Cerasola on the tragedy of the Dc9 Itavia plane, precipitated in the waters around Ustica island on the 27 of June 1980 and published by editor Tullio Pironti.

Cossiga’s words were published today by one of the authors of the movie, Giampiero Marrazzo. “I called admiral Fulvio Martini, director of the Italian intelligence – continued the senator – who told me that he didn’t have enough evidence”. Cossiga, referring to the authors of the movie, that will be on sale stating from the 10th of June together with a book with an introduction by Giulio Andreotti, warned the two journalists: “You’d better not go to France. If you continue this investigation something could happen to you: food poisoning, a flat tyre or a crash into a truck”. In any case, according to Cossiga, “there could be a right-wing, centre-right, left or extreme left government, the French will never say anything. Maybe until someone who knows or who is the author of the slaughter, dying, will fear God’s judgement and won’t be able to say egalité, fraternité and liberté”.

Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute