Red Brigades

History

Exits of the group Sinistra proletaria (Left Proletarian), the red Brigades (Br) are an organization Terroriste founded Italy the October 20th 1970 with Reggio Emilia mainly by Renato Curcio and Alberto Franceschini.

During this time, the tactics and the day order of the red Brigades are close to other political groups of Extreme left, such Lotta Continua or Potere Operaio, near to the movement Autonome.

The attack of the Piazza Fontana, on December 12th, 1969 (16 died and 98 wounded), mark the beginning of what one will call the “Stratégie of the tension”. An anarchistic railwayman, Giuseppe Pinelli, at the time is appointed by the authorities. Neofascist militants will be finally put in examination, in 1997 only: they will be released in March 2004 by the Court of Appeal of Milan, at the end of a very discussed verdict. In reaction to the attack of the piazza Fontana, many Italian groups of extreme left (whose autonomous Mouvement) enters in effervescence. The foundation of the red Brigades rises directly from this event.

In 1974, Alberto Franceschini and Renato Curcio, principal founders of the group, are stopped by the general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa and are condemned to eighteen years of Prison.

In front of the failure of the actions of propaganda carried out in working medium, the red Brigades decide to concentrate their action on the Armed struggle and the violent actions (sequestrations, wounds by balls with the legs - called “jambisations” -, assassinations) against the “servants of the State”: police officers, magistrates, politicians and journalists.

They were released on the basis of law of 1982 on the " dissociation". According to Franceschini, the death of the writer Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, on March 15th, 1972, left them like " orphelins" , and put the accent on the violent nature of the acts of Br as from 1972. Franceschini also admitted the participation of the red Brigades in the bombardment of the embassy from the United States in Athens in Greece, that Corrado Simioni would have organized. Simioni would have also installed a secret group inside the red Brigades, the " Superclan ". Franceschini pled that Simioni functioned in the name of NATO in the operation of the false flags (False flag), quoting the insistent proposal of Simioni to assassinate Junio Valerio Borghese in November 1970 or other agents of NATO. Mario Moretti then took the head of Br, and organized in March 1978 the removal of Aldo Moro. Moretti is suspecté to be a spy, by Franceschini and Curcio.

The assassination of Aldo Moro

Second Br (the founders of Br are then in prison), directed by Mario Moretti, are mainly illustrated by the removal of the president of the party of the Christian Democrat, Aldo Moro, on March 16th 1978, day when Giulio Andreotti presented to the Rooms a government “historical Compromis” with the Communist party. The Italian State refused to negotiate with Br, which aimed at reaching a kind of recognition similar to that reached by the PLO (Liberation organization of Palestine), as an insurrectionary movement, as well as the release of certain imprisoned terrorists. After 55 days of captivity, Aldo Moro was assassinated by the brigadists. Its body was found in the trunk of a car via Caetani, halfway of the head offices of cd. and the NCV. The chief of SISMI (Italian secret services) accepted thereafter a blame for his attitude of firmness during the negotiations.

The telegram of the red Brigades dispatched after the execution of Aldo Moro of a ball in the nape of the neck qualifies this murder of " conclusion of a bataille".

At the time, the red Brigades are denounced by the totality of the Italian political community and seem definitively isolated. The Italian union world condemns them in particular following the assassination of the trade unionist Guido Rossa, who had denounced a guilty worker to have distributed leaflets of Br.

In 1981, the Red Brigades assassinate Roberto Peci, brother of Patrizio Peci " collaboratore di giustizia" (defendant passed to the consents which collaborates with justice in exchange of a reduced sentence). This revenge " transversale" , which points out the crimes of Maffia, will have also very serious consequences for the Brigades.

The years 1980

In 1981, a scission intervened in Br, those being divided into two concurrent organizations: the BR-PCC (Communist party combatant) and the BR-UCC (fighting communist Union).

After the death of the Abbot Pierre in January 2007, the Italian magistrate Carlo Mastelloni recalled in the Corriere beyond Will be that the Pierre Abbot testified in the Eighties in favor of the group of Italian refugees in Paris, directed by Vanni Mulinaris. Simone de Beauvoir had also written a letter to him, which was maintained in the legal files. The members of this group (who included Corrado Simioni, Vanni Mulinaris and Duccio Berio) were shown by the Italian judge to be " dirigeant" Br, before they all are discharged by the Court of Assizes of Venice.

After the voyage of Vanni Mulinari with Udine and its arrest by Italian justice, the Abbé Pierre went to speak in 1983 with Italian President Sandro Pertini in favor of Vanni Mulinaris (the husband of its niece), imprisoned on the load of the assistance with Br. The Pierre Abbot even observed eight days of strike of hunger in the cathedral of Turin.

Escapes in France: the “Mitterrand doctrines”

During Years 1980, many members of the red Brigades and other terrorist groups could take refuge in France in the name of what one called the “Mitterrand doctrines”: subject to not making use of their refuge in France like base camp for violent actions, they had the guarantee not to be extradited. according to some, this attitude would have contributed to alleviate the tension in Italy. The “Mitterrand doctrines” do not have however a legal authenticity on the bottom: what a president can say to the length of his mandate is not a source of the right in France.

In 2002, Paolo Persichetti, “brigadist” not repented, condemned to 22 years of prison for participation in the assassination of a general of the aviation, which taught from now on political sociology at the university Paris VIII, is extradited in Italy. See in particular the account of its extradition: Exile and Châtiment , appeared with the editions Textual in 2005. Paris then seems to break with the commitment entered into by François Mitterrand in 1985, but the " Mitterrand" doctrines; did not concern the guilty people of crimes of blood. It is advisable to point out the following declaration of François Mitterrand:

“We have approximately 300 Italians taken refuge in France since 1976 and who, since they are on our premises, “repented” and to which our police force does not have anything to reproach. There is also about thirty Italians who are dangerous but they are the clandestine ones. They thus should initially be found. Then, they will not be extradited that if it is shown that they committed crimes of blood. If the Italian judges send serious files to us proving that there was crime of blood, and if French justice gives an positive opinion, then we will accept the extradition. (...) We are ready to extradite or expel in the future criminal truths on the basis of serious file. ” (report of a working lunch with Bettino Craxi, 1985)

However, Sergio Tornaghi, member of the column Walter Alasia, condemned by contumacy to perpetuity for “participation in armed band” and “assassination” and decree in France in 1998, obtained win before the Court of Appeal of Bordeaux. This one had refused the extradition because of the Italian procedure which does not allow one not condemned by contumacy to be again judged in the event of return, as envisages it the European Cour of the human rights.

A new generation of terrorists

In the years 1980, whereas the majority of the “brigadists” of the first hour gave up the fight, a continuous new generation to make violent actions sporadically. Following dismantling in 1989 of this new band, Br know one period of sleep before taking again their actions at the end of the years 1990. The 1st June 2005, five members of the “New red Brigades”, shown to have organized the assassination in March 2002 of the professor Marco Biagi, a consultant of the government, is condemned to perpetuity by the Court of Assizes of Bologna. The assassinations of Marco Biagi and Massimo d' Antona, killed in Rome in 1999, had been asserted by the BR-PCC.

In February 2007, fifteen alleged terrorists are stopped in the north of Italy, whereas they prepared according to the police force to make attacks and assassinations. The group is composed of young recruits, but also of veterans of terrorism, like Alfredo Davanzo, taken refuge in France during several years and clandestinely returned to Italy. In October 2007, Cristoforo Piancone, a former member of the red Brigades passed in 2004 in mode of semi-freedom, is stopped for attack of bank.

Context: Italy of the “Years of lead”

To face the various attacks, ascribable to the two extremes of the political field, which mark these Années of lead, Italy adopts laws of exception. The law Reale of the May 22nd 1975 authorizes the police force to search and stop a person without mandate of the examining magistrate, on only suspicion. Then the Cossiga Order in Council of December 15th, 1979 lengthens preventive detention for the offenses of terrorism and authorizes the phone-tappings.

The law Gozzini of October 10th, 1986, then the law on the “dissociation” of the February 18th, 1987 and the Order in Council of April 12th, 1990 and of December 22nd, 1990, will mark the end of these “special” laws, by reducing detention.

Composition

Br were composed with the mimimum of about fifty frameworks and many active and passive supports. In 1981, 1523 terrorists close or members to Br were held in Italy. According to diplomatic Le Monde , the Italian prisons counted 4.000 political prisoners in 1980. According to Alberto Franceschini, after its arrest in 1974 like that of the majority of the members of the group of origin, the first Brigades left the place to a second groups harder. Franceschini issued reserves as for confidence to be granted to Mario Moretti.

Bonds with secret services and various speculations

It is proven that the Soviet Union brought a logistical support for the Red Brigades: several their members remained clandestinely in Czechoslovakia and accepted a drive there; such an assistance implied necessarily the agreement of the Soviet government. Alberto Franceschini affirmed convinced being that Mario Moretti had been an agent, either of the CIA, or of the KGB. Theses of infiltration of the red Brigades by certain branches of the Italian secret services were not confirmed to date.

Theory complotist

As of the years 1970, one speaks in the mediums about extreme left about a mysterious secret organization, financed by the the CIA, which would have handled, even infiltrated, the group of Mario Moretti. Alberto Franceschini, the founder of Br, will maintain this thesis in its memories, published in 2005 at its coming out of prison. Since the revelations of the Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti on October 24th, 1990, one knows whereas such an organization, called Gladio, really existed. A parliamentary report of 2000 denounced the “Stratégie of the tension” which aimed then, by the means of attacks False flags, put on the back of the extreme left, “to prevent the NCV and, to a lesser extent, the Italian Socialist party, to reach the capacity”. The effective control of the red Brigades within the framework of a strategy of this type was however never proven.

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