Watered-down justice: Piazza della Loggia bombings

 ROME- After 41 years, three inquiries, and 13 trials, the untiring efforts of the Brescia investigators and the family members of those killed in the Piazza della Loggia bombings evidently paid off, as neo-fascist terrorists Carlo Maria Maggi and Maurizio Tramonte received life prison sentences. A sense of closure on a dark moment in Italian history is undeniably apparent, but there is a lingering sense of injustice.

 Some observers have termed the ruling “judicial archaeology,” arguing that such overdue justice is no justice at all. It is an understandable viewpoint. Maggi is 80, suffers from poor health, and thus will never go to prison for his crimes. Nevertheless, Tramonte, being only 63 years old, will likely serve time.

 Manlio Milani, head of the association of the victims’ families, who lost his wife in the attack, says the verdict should have come much sooner, claiming that justice being served 41 years after is a watered-down and weakened kind.

 However, Milani also believes the verdict allows for the truth to be revealed regarding the events of that ill-fated morning. He still hopes for information from Maggi, who was convicted of ordering the attack as part of the ‘strategy of tension’ to prevent a communist government.

 For the first time, those affected by the bombing are to receive compensation, whether for the loss of a family member or for being wounded in the incident, arranged for by the Milan Court of Appeals.

 Giorgio Trebeschi, who lost both his parents at age one and a half in the bombings, is set to receive 1.5million euros. One million euros will go to Brescia city council. In old age Maggi and Tramonte will likely avoid having to pay the compensation of 4.5 million euros due to poverty however.

 The verdict was a bittersweet victory for those affected.  Maggi and Tramonte, in their twilight years, have escaped the full brunt of the consequences of their actions.