Ten former militants of far-left radical groups convicted of terrorism have been living as refugees on Gallic soil since the 1980s
The Paris Court of Appeal has ruled against the extradition to Italy of ten former members of Italian far-left radical groups, refugees in France for decades and claimed by Rome for their involvement in terrorist attacks committed in the so-called ‘years of lead’.
In justifying its unfavorable judgment, the Inquiry Chamber relied on the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular in Articles 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and 6 (right to a fair trial).
“I am very happy for my customer. He was afraid to end his days in prison,” Jean-Louis Chalanset, lawyer for Enzo Calvitti, a former member of the Red Brigades, told the press.
The ten terrorists – eight men and two women between the ages of 61 and 78 – have rebuilt their lives in France. Six of them belonged to the Red Brigades (in Italian Brigate Rosse) in their youth and four to other transalpine radical left groups.
All are required by the Justice of Rome to serve sentences for terrorism, as their involvement in attacks in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s has been proven.
Until last year they felt protected by the so-called ‘Mitterrand doctrine’. Former socialist president François Mitterrand made a verbal commitment in 1985 not to extradite former far-left terrorists to Italy, provided they had renounced violence and committed no blood crime.
France upheld the ‘Mitterrand Doctrine’ for 36 years until, in April 2021, the president, Emmanuel Macron, authorized the arrest of ten former members of the Red Brigades sentenced in Italy to 11 years to life in prison for attacks. committed between 1979 and 1982.
The decision to bury the ‘Mitterrand Doctrine’ marked a shift in the position of the Elysée Palace and was interpreted as a gesture to the then new government of Mario Draghi.
Between 1968 and 1982, Italy suffered a wave of attacks, claimed by both the far-left and far-right. The Red Brigades was the latter faction’s best-known terrorist group. They are said to be responsible for hundreds of murders, including that of the Christian Democratic leader and former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in May 1978.
Source: La Verdad
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