Is the Italian State hounding one of the ten former ultra-left militants whose extradition it demands for acts of terrorism committed during the “years of lead”?
The question animated the debates on Wednesday before the Paris Court of Appeal, which was examining the case of Luigi Bergamin.
At 73, this Italian exiled in France since 1982 assured the judges of living
“a descent into hell”
since his arrest in 2021. Reconverted as a translator, he castigated a
“senseless judicial process”
which
“designates him as an extremely dangerous, the prescription of which must be erased at all costs".
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Read alsoItaly: the specter of years of lead
Like the nine other ex-activists now claimed by Italy, this former member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism, accused of being involved in the organization of the murder of a prison officer, Antonio Santoro - killed by Cesare Battisti in 1978 - thought he was protected by the commitment made in 1985 by President François Mitterrand not to extradite activists who had broken with their past.
Until the series of arrests triggered by Paris on April 28, 2021. Absent from his home that day, Luigi Bergamin presented himself the next day to French justice, with the firm conviction of being covered by the prescription for twenty days.
But the date of April 8, 2021, initially set for the termination of the proceedings, has just been challenged by the Italian courts.
A few weeks earlier, a transalpine judge retained more than 40 years after the facts a new qualification against the ex-activist, that of
“habitual offender”
.
An additional offense, which makes his sentence imprescriptible, which was confirmed by the Italian Court of Cassation.
“I am disgusted by this procedure”
, launched his lawyer Irène Terrel, in a particularly offensive argument, denouncing
“shameful manipulation”
and
“fraud of the law”.
"It's no longer relentlessness, it's legal persecution,"
she insisted.
"Dishonorable"
Luigi Bergamin has already been the subject of two extradition procedures, each time refused by French justice in 1990 and 1991. Italy is now claiming him for the execution of a remainder of a prison sentence of 16 years and 11 months.
In their new request,
"the Italian authorities indicated that the facts were going to be prescribed on April 8"
, recalled the Advocate General, asking for additional information so that the French judges could have
"copies of the decisions"
and understand what which would henceforth make his case imprescriptible.
"There is no logic of relentlessness"
, assured his side the lawyer of the Italian State, William Julie.
"At the root of these files, there are crimes (...) which should not have allowed asylum"
, he recalled, regretting the lack of cooperation of the French authorities in the requests for asylum.
extradition of former Italian activists for 40 years.
"How can this qualification of habitual offender apply to a man who has a clean French criminal record and an Italian record that dates back to the 70s and 80s?"
, replied Mr. Terrel.
Documents in hand, she retraced the reasoning of the Italian justice system, which
"considers that the fact of not having a criminal record (in France) becomes proof of one's cunning, of one's professionalism in crime"
, and would demonstrate
"remarkably conduct clever»
on the part of Luigi Bergamin to
"evade"
his extradition.
A justification put forward when
“for 30 years, Italy did nothing”
to relaunch a new demand, she was indignant.
The lawyer also castigated a judgment rendered in Italy without Luigi Bergamin being summoned and with a
"court-appointed lawyer".
"You are not going to limit yourself to endorsing such an enormity, it would be absolutely dishonorable for your mission as a judge
," she told the court.
"We gave them a chance to change, which we don't take back 40 years later."
With its deliberation set for June 29, the Court of Appeal will make its decisions for each of the ten former activists concerned.