Seven former members of the Italian Red Brigades, convicted in Italy for acts of terrorism committed in the 1970s and 1980s, were arrested in France this Wednesday morning, at the request of Italy, and three others are wanted, by decision of 'Emmanuel Macron, announced the Elysee.

The decision to transmit to the prosecution these ten names, on "Italian requests which originally concerned 200 individuals", "was taken by the president and is strictly in line with the 'Mitterrand doctrine'" to grant the asylum for ex-brigadists except for blood crimes, said the Elysee.

The extradition of far-left activists who came to take refuge in France after the "years of lead", marked by attacks and violence by the Red Brigades, especially between 1968 and 1982, has been a request from Italy for years. to which France had hardly ever acceded.

The establishment of this list of ten names is the result of "an important bilateral preparatory work, lasting several months, which led to the retention of the most serious crimes", the presidency specified.

"France, itself affected by terrorism, understands the absolute need for justice"

"The president wanted to settle this subject, as Italy had been asking for for years," added the Elysee. “France, itself affected by terrorism, understands the absolute need for justice for victims. It is also, through this transmission, part of the pressing need to build a Europe of Justice, in which mutual trust must be at the center ”, concludes the Elysee. Justice must now rule on their extradition.

The arrested ex-brigadists must be presented before forty-eight before the general prosecutor's office of the Paris Court of Appeal, before a judge rules on their possible detention or their release under judicial supervision, the time of the judicial review of Italian extradition requests, we learned from a judicial source.

This case had resurfaced when Cesare Battisti returned to Italy, captured in January 2019 in Bolivia and extradited to Italy, after nearly forty years on the run in France and then in Brazil.

The Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini then affirmed that France had sheltered for decades "assassins who killed innocent people" and called for the return to Italy of "about fifteen" "Italian terrorists", "who were convicted. but have a good life in France ”.

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