ABSTRACT
Magistrate A relatively unknown magistrate, Antonio Di Pietro found himself thrown abruptly into the limelight on 17 February 1992 with the arrest of Mario Chiesa, the first move in the anti-corruption drive codenamed Mani pulite (Clean Hands). Thereafter Di Pietro’s name was inextricably linked to the campaign whose aim was to dismantle the system of public corruption, subsequently nicknamed Tangentopoli (Bribesville), and which contributed significantly to the fall of the First Republic.
