I’m continuing to publish some questions and answers from the book "Intervista su Tangentopoli" published by Laterza and edited by Giovanni Valentini.

GV: You have established that you didn’t use preventive incarceration as a way of getting a confession from a suspect. But during the Mani Pulite {Clean Hands} enquiry you were also accused of using threats and violence towards suspects. Can you frankly exclude ever having jangled a set of handcuffs in front of the eyes of a suspect?

ADP: Apart from the fact that none of us actually had a set of handcuffs available, I can exclude it even in a metaphorical sense. Our method of investigation was not designed to force the willingness of the suspect; rather it was designed to get consent. What we were aiming for in fact was to get the defendant to work alongside us, to get their complicity. Today I smile bitterly to see so many former lawyers who make useless attacks against the Milan pool {the team of magistrates in Milan} and I still remember some of them when they came to the Procura {office of the prosecutors} to persuade myself or one of the team to receive their clients as they couldn’t hold out any longer. They had an attack of “overflowing speech”. They were great lawyers who now pretend to have forgotten. Perhaps they’ve even become parliamentarians on the Left or the Right and perhaps they attack the magistracy, one day yes and the next as well. Whereas at that time they were queuing up to bring their clients to us.

GV: To whom was President Scalfaro referring, in his inaugural speech at the end of 1997 when he criticised the magistrates for the ‘rattling of handcuffs’?

ADP: There’s no doubt that he intended to refer to us, but it’s just as sure that he made a mistake. Scalfaro, President Scalfaro. I am still perplexed, very perplexed about this way he had of behaving. Sometimes he was supportive and at other times he was critical. He had an attitude like that of Pontius Pilate in relation to Mani Pulite. I also remember that straight after I had resigned as a magistrate, I was called on a number of occasions to the Quirinale {official residence of the President of the Republic}. But the President wasn’t much interested in expressing his understanding nor his solidarity. He was more concerned to understand what I intended to do.