PARIS – After more than a year from the beginning of the procedure, the Chambre de l’Instruction of the Court of Appeal of Paris has decided to deny the extradition requested by Italy for the ten former terrorists of the years of Lead. The eight men and two women ex-militants of the far-left area for whom Rome requested extradition had been stopped in the spring of last year by the French authorities, with the green light coming from the Elysée to try to close the long controversies surrounding the welcome beyond the Alps of Italian refugees received in the 1980s according to the “Mitterrand doctrine”. Among those arrested, then immediately released on probation pending the decision of justice, was the former militant of Lotta Continua Giorgio Pietrostefani78, convicted in Italy as one of the instigators of the commissioner’s murder Luigi Calabresi. For health reasons, Pietrostefani appeared only at the first hearing before the French judges.
The reasons of the Court
In announcing the unfavorable opinion on the ten extradition requests, the Court of Appeal recalled articles 8 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It cannot be Italy but only France, through the Attorney General of the Court of Appeal of Paris, to decide whether or not to challenge the decision of the Chamber of Instruction of the Court of Appeal. It will therefore be up to the French Attorney General to decide within two months whether to appeal to the Supreme Court. Otherwise, the procedure will be archived.
Thus ends the last chapter of the tug-of-war between Italy and France on the question of extraditions. For some of the Italians subject to the extradition request, the Paris Court of Appeal, already consulted in the past, had expressed an opinion in favor of extradition but then blocked at subsequent levels of judgment or in some cases, as for the former Brigadier Marina Petrella, blocked by a political decision. In other cases, such as for the former Brigadier Maurizio Di Marzio or the former Pac militant Luigi Bergaminthere was already a doubt about the prescription.
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The reactions
At the reading of the sentence in the courtroom there were hugs of the protagonists with husbands, wives, children and some grandchildren: many cried. Others, who remained outside, rejoiced when they realized that everyone had not accepted the Italian request. “I’m very happy for my client – said the lawyer Jean-Louis Chalansetwhich he defends Enzo Calvitti – I feared he would go to jail to finish his days. “Per Irene Terrellegal historian of the former Italian terrorists refugees in France, in the sentence denying extradition “the higher principles of law were applied”, with reference to respect for the personal, private life and health of the accused and the controversial rules of the trial in default.
Also present in court was a group of Italians led by the Lega deputy Daniele Belottishouted “assassins!”. The group, which had unrolled a protest banner in front of the courthouse before the hearing, also included the mayor of Telgate, in the province of Bergamo, the municipality of origin of one of the former terrorists, Narcissus Manentiand the president and vice president of the carabinieri association of Bergamo named after Giuseppe Gurrieri, the contracted man killed in 1979 by Manenti in front of his 11-year-old son. “Other than European solidarity”, commented the leader of the League Matteo Salvini accusing France: “Protecting terrorists who killed in Italy is a shame”.
France says no to the extradition of 5 former terrorists whose names are engraved in the history of Milan and Lombardy
