Who are the seven Italian “Red Brigade” fugitives arrested in France?

On April 28, 2021, France arrested seven former members of the Red Brigades, a far-left Italian terrorist organization, and is searching for three more. The seven arrested Italians were convicted in Italy on terrorism charges and fled to France. The men will likely be extradited back to Italy, but the cumbersome judicial process will drag on for a long time.

Italy has been asking France for years to arrest these terrorist criminals. This time Macron decided to launch an arrest operation against ten of them, but did not provide more details about the arrests. Here are some details of the seven arrested, based on information provided by the list of “members of far-left armed groups in France” on file with the Italian police.

Marina PETRELLA: She was born in Rome on August 23, 1954. She is accused of participating in the killing of Italian General Enrico Galavigi in December 1980; the kidnapping of a chancellor in 1982; the attempted murder of a deputy police chief in Rome the same year; the kidnapping of a Christian democrat near Naples in 1982; and the killing of two bodyguards. She was sentenced in absentia to life in prison and was set to be extradited to Italy in 2008 when then-President Sarkozy decided not to execute the extradition order, citing poor health. She Marina PETRELLA has been living in Saint-Denis, northern France, and is a social worker in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.

Roberta CAPPELLI: Born in Rome on March 24, 1955. She is accused of multiple homicide and was involved in the killing of General Enrico Galavigi in 1980 and of policeman Michele Granato in November 1979, and was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian court.

Sergio TORNAGHI: Born in Milan on March 24, 1958. Accused of participating in the killings of Renato Briano, a Milan industrialist, and the director of a hospital. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for “participation in an armed group”, “terrorist propaganda” and “terrorist attacks”.

Narciso MANENTI: Born November 22, 1957, in Telgate, northern Italy. Accused of killing a gendarme, Giuseppe Gurrieri, in March 1979 and marrying a French woman in 1985.

Giorgio PIETROSTEFANI: Born in 1943 in the central city of L’Aquila. He is the leader of the Italian “Lutte Ouvriere” (Workers’ Resistance) faction. Accused of killing police chief Luigi Calabresi in Milan in 1972, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Giovanni ALIMONTI: Born in Rome on August 30, 1955. Accused of the premeditated murder of the vice-president of Rome. He was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for “membership in an armed group” and “terrorist organization.

Enzo CALVITTI: Born February 17, 1955, in the central Italian city of Mafalda. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for “links with terrorists” and “participation in an armed group” as a member of the far-left militant group “Red Brigade.

The police are also looking for three other members of the Italian far-left terrorist organization “Red Brigade”, Maurizio Di Marzio, Luigi BERGAMIN and Raffaele VENTURA.

Maurizio Di Marzio, a member of the Red Brigade, was sentenced to 18 years in prison; Luigi BERGAMIN, a former member of the Proletarian Armed Forces in his 70s, was caught in Paris in 1994, but the French have refused to extradite him. Raffaele VENTURA, a former member of the Communist Combatant Group, was charged with the murder of police officer Antonio Custra in Milan in May 1977 and sentenced to a prison term.

The Red Brigade was a terrorist organization active from the late 1960s to the early 1980s that carried out more than 15,000 attacks, killing 415 people, and in 1978 killed former Italian Prime Minister Moreau.