The Court of Cassation examined Tuesday, February 7 in the morning the appeals of the general prosecutor's office of Paris, which opposes the refusal of the court of appeal to extradite ten former Italian activists claimed by Italy for acts of "
terrorism
" during the “years of lead”.
The decision of the highest court of the French judicial order will be rendered on March 28.
The Advocate General, Xavier Tarabeux, concluded that the appeals should be dismissed.
Protected by the Mitterrand doctrine
The ten former far-left activists, two women and eight men aged 62 to 79, have been the subject of extradition proceedings since the spring of 2021. They were convicted in Italy for their involvement in acts in terrorist character committed during the "
years of lead
", from the end of the 1960s to the beginning of the 1980s.
All of them have rebuilt their lives in France for thirty or forty years and believed they were protected by the Mitterrand doctrine: the socialist president (1981-1995) had made a commitment not to extradite former activists who had broken with their past.
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But in the spring of 2021, after months of negotiations, President Emmanuel Macron had decided to promote the execution of the extradition requests of these six ex-Red Brigades and four ex-members of armed groups, renewed a year earlier by Rome. .
After examining the situation of each of the ten former activists, the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal had issued an unfavorable opinion on their surrender to the Italian authorities on June 29, 2022.
The court had justified its refusal by respecting the right to private and family life of these persons established in France as well as the right to a fair trial, provided for by Articles 8 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. .
Bidding between ultra-right and ultra-left
The Attorney General, Rémy Heitz, had appealed against this decision, considering in particular that the investigating chamber had not ordered new additional information to ensure that those who were tried in their absence would benefit from a new trial if extradited.
The four lawyers on the council of the ten former militants have successively asked for the appeals to be dismissed, believing that the opinion of the investigating chamber was based on the answers provided by Italy.
A time of violent social struggles, the "
years of lead
" were marked by an escalation between ultra-right and ultra-left and resulted in more than 360 deaths attributed to both sides, thousands of injuries, 10,000 arrests and 5,000 convictions.