“
Those who killed innocent people should not end their lives drinking champagne under the Eiffel Tower, but in prison as it is fair.
“That they already seem far away, these words pronounced in January 2019 Matteo Salvini, still Minister of the Interior, on the occasion of the arrest in Bolivia of Cesare Battisti.
If at least fourteen former terrorists of the "
years of lead
»Continue to escape the long prison sentences handed down against them in Italy thanks to the asylum they have found in France, their extradition seems less than ever to be a priority for the French authorities, for whom it has never been also urgent to wait - and for good reason: prescribed beyond thirty years, the facts in question, including the most serious, will soon no longer fall under the jurisdiction of the Italian courts.
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Two terrorists in particular will soon be able to breathe: the former member of the "
Proletarians armed for communism
" (to which Cesare Battisti also belonged), Luigi Bergamin, and the former "
red brigadier
" Maurizio di Marzio.
The acts for which these two fugitives were sentenced in Italy to heavy prison terms will be prescribed on April 8 and May 10 respectively.
Tempus ran away
.
In a letter that the journalist Matteo Ghisalberti (
La Verità
) was
able to consult
, the Italian Ministry of Justice requested their extradition again from the French Chancellery, recalling a procedure started on January 29, 2020 and observing that French slowness and ill will have already led the Italian justice to have to give up its prosecution against another terrorist, Ermengildo Marinelli, a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Movement and already suffering from prescription.
According to the same newspaper, a meeting between the Italian and French justice ministers, Marta Cartabia and Éric Dupond-Moretti, which was to be held last week, has been postponed to April 8 and will finally be held virtually.
At the request of the Minister's entourage, the "
most delicate subjects
" should not be included in the program of this meeting, which will therefore be limited to tackling the subjects of transalpine cooperation on current criminal cases or the thorny question. unaccompanied minors.
Neither Rome nor Paris therefore seem to make much of the imminent prescription of the prosecution of the two terrorists.
The subject has, it is true, poisoned relations between the two countries several times in the past.
On the side of the French justice, it is made known that if Italy really wanted to recover its terrorists, it would signify it by a letter emanating directly from the Presidency of the Republic - which, until now, has not been fact.
Climate of terror
A painful page in Italian history which has left a lasting mark on an entire generation, the years of lead cover a historical period of around fifteen years, from the mid-sixties to the beginning of the eighties, during which several groups of The far left have maintained a climate of political terror fueled by repeated threats of coup d'etat, street clashes, assassinations and even several deadly attacks.
Some of the perpetrators of these acts escaped Italian justice by fleeing, finding refuge in France in particular, or at least fourteen of them continue to live, sheltered from the legal proceedings which have condemned them for the most part. to heavy prison sentences: Giovanni Alimonti, Luigi Bergamin, Roberta Cappelli, Enzo Calvitti, Paolo Ceriani Sebregondi, Salvatore Cirincione, Maurizio Di Marzio, Paola Filippi, Gino Giunti, Giorgio Pietrostefani, Ermenegildo Marinelli, Sergio Tornagildo Marinelli, Sergio Tornagi and Villura Villura, .
Before taking refuge in South America, Cesare Battisti himself had spent fifteen years in France.
Read also: Relatives of Cesare Battisti denounce "
torture
" of isolation
The refusal to extradite these terrorists claimed by Italy was associated with the "
Mitterrand doctrine
", following a speech at the Rennes Sports Palace on February 1, 1985 in which the president had pledged not to extradite those among the former members of these terrorist groups who have repented (with the exception of the perpetrators of bloody acts), describing people having "
broken with the infernal machine in which they were engaged, who tackled a second phase of their own life, have become part of French society.
However, among the former terrorists currently in France, some have nevertheless been found guilty of assassinations, such as Giorgio Pietrostefani, sentenced to twenty-two years in prison for the assassination of police commissioner Luigi Calabresi.
