PARIS - Speaking at a preliminary hearing in the Court of Appeal in the French capital, nine former far-left Italian terrorists from the Red Brigades and other gangs arrested in France have refused extradition, judicial sources said Thursday. The first hearings to decide if they will be delivered back to Italy, as per the request of the Italian Foreign Ministry, will begin in June.

  During a preliminary hearing Wednesday, all nine gave statements expressing their innocence as well as legal reasons their extradition should not go through, mostly because of the length of time that has passed since their crimes - some having spent 40 years in France. Several of them had already served prison sentences in Italy before their escape to France.

  Marina Petrella, one of those arrested, said, “We are coming to the end. We are scraping the bottom of the barrel. I have lived all these years with a great pain. Pain and compassion for the victims, for all the victims. For the families involved, including mine. For my part, I did 10 years in prison between Italy and France. And 30 years of exile, a punishment without discount and without thanks, that prevents you from returning to your country".

  The nine are wanted in Italy for crimes committed during the ‘Years of Lead,’ a period in Italy, from roughly the late 1960s to late 1980s, which saw frequent and devastating acts of domestic terrorism, from both the far-left and far-right. 

  During this time many terrorists condemned by the Italian courts fled to France to take advantage of the Mitterand doctrine, which rules that violent terrorists would not be extradited to Italy unless they’d committed "active, actual, bloody terrorism.” France disagreed with Italian legislation at the time, particularly that trials held in absentia did not need to be repeated once the terrorist was apprehended, and wanted to protect the left-wing terrorists from what they thought were harsh sentences. In 2002 the doctrine was effectively repealed, though many French intellectuals still support it.  

  Following a reinvigorated push by Italian authorities for the arrest of ten former terrorists, France made seven arrests on the morning of April 28. 

   Among those arrested were Giorgio Petrostefani, a former member of Lotta Continua (Continuous Struggle) who was condemned to 14 years imprisonment for his involvement  ing the murder of police officer Luigi Calabresi in 1972, three former members of the ‘Red Brigade’ who had been sentenced to life, Roberta Cappelli, Marina Petrella and Sergio Tornaghi, and Narciso Manenti of the ‘Armed Nuclei for Territorial Counterpower’, also sentenced to life. The final two were Giovanni Alimonti and Enzo Calvitti, of the Red Brigade, sentenced to 11 years and 18 years respectively.

  Following these arrests, Luigi Bergamin and Raffaele Ventura handed themselves in the next day. According to French judicial authorities, they arrived separately, both with lawyers, at Paris’ Palais de Justice.

  Maurizio Di Marzio is the only one of the ten wanted by the Italian government still on the run. It is believed that he is waiting for the charges against him to expire on May 10.

  On April 29, the nine in custody were all released on bail, none deemed a flight risk, while the French courts consider Italy’s extradition requests.

   A few of those arrested were deemed by Italian courts as ‘habitual offenders’, a status which means that a criminal can still be convicted even after charges against him from over 40 years ago might have expired. 

  In response to Italy’s current requests for extradition, the French newspaper Libération dedicated two pages to an appeal by a group of intellectuals to French President Emmanuel Macron to deny Italy’s requests. The petition was signed by around 30 people, including designer Agnes B., actors Charles Berling and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and directors Costa-Gavras and Jean-Luc Godard. It asks for the government to “turn a page and look to the future,” recalling the welcome France gave the former militants, and the new life they have there.

  During a press conference organised by the League for Human Rights, the lawyers of the defendants said that “they are violating these people’s rights.”

  Mario Draghi, meanwhile, spoke after the arrests of the government’s “satisfaction with France’s decision to start judicial procedures, as requested by Italy, regarding those responsible for the grave acts of terrorism that have still left an open wound. The memory of these barbaric acts is alive in the Italian conscience.”

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