Draghi welcomes France arresting 7 Italian former terrorists

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 28 - Premier Mario Draghi expressed satisfaction after seven Italian far-left former terrorists, including ex members of the Red Brigades (BR), were arrested in Paris on Wednesday.
    Rome has long been pressing Paris to arrest a long list of former terrorists who have taken refuge from Italian justice in France.
    The BR committed many atrocities during Italy's years of lead of political violence in the 1970s and 80s, including the kidnapping and murder of former premier Aldo Moro in 1978. Draghi's office said the government welcomed "France's decision to start the judicial procedures, requested by the Italian side, against those responsible for very serious crimes of terrorism, which left a wound that is still open.
    "The memory of those barbaric acts is alive in the conscience of the Italian people, "In my name and that of the government I renew participation in the pain of the relatives in remembering with emotion the sacrifice of the victims".
    The operation, conducted by the French police's SDAT anti-terrorism unit in collaboration with Criminalpol and the Italian police, led to the arrest of former BR members Enzo Calvitti, Giovanni Alimonti, Roberta Cappelli, Marina Petrella and Sergio Tornaghi, plus Giorgio Pietrostefani of Lotta Continua and Narciso Manenti of the Nuclei Armati contro il Potere Territoriale group.
    Three others, Luigi Bergamin, Maurizio Di Marzio and Raffaele Ventura, managed to get away before being arrested and are on the run.
    All 10 have been convicted of terrorism-related crimes.
    A statement by French President Emmanuel Macron's office said his administration had wanted to solve an issue that has long caused tension with Rome.
    "France, which is also affected by terrorism, understands the absolute need to provide justice for victims," the statement said.
    "It is also part of the absolute need to build a Europe of justice in which mutual confidence must be central".
    Under the "Mitterrand Doctrine" Paris allowed former left-wing terrorists to stay in France and not get extradited to Italy as long as they pledged to renounce violence.
    Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio welcomed Wednesday's development.
    "These former BR members had been accused and convicted in Italy of acts of terrorist linked to bloodshed in the 1970s and 80s," Di Maio said via Facebook.
    "Total commitment to combat crime and terrorism.
    "You cannot flee from your responsibilities, from the pain caused, from the evil generated".
    Italian Justice Minister Marta Cartabia said France's decision was "historic".
    "Today my thoughts go, above all, to the victims of the years of lead and their relatives, who have been waiting for responses for so many years," she daid.
    Irene Terrel, a lawyer who has represented many former Italian terrorists in France, said Paris had committed an act of "nameless betrayal". (ANSA).