Career
Musumeci and Belmonte were also convicted for possessing and transporting explosives. They tried to sidetrack the investigations on the 1980 Bologna train station bombing by simulating an attempt with explosives on a Taranto-Milan train, in January 1981 (the bombing was voluntarily thwarted by order of Musumeci). A further conviction came in 1988, when he was also sentenced for slandering said investigation.
Although acquitted on appeals, this sentence was upheld by the Italian Supreme Court in 1995.
A 1984 parliamentary inquiry indicated that irregularities at SISMI included the charge that Musumeci used the Camorra to negotiate the release of Ciro Cirillo, a Christian-democratic politician who was kidnapped by the Red Brigades.