Its Supreme Court of France today definitively rejected the extradition request ten Italian ex-terrorists who have lived for many years in French cities. The request, submitted by the Italian authorities, was supported by the French government. Following the negative decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, the Paris Attorney General appealed to the country’s Supreme Court.

The new final rejection of the request is based, as leaked, on the fact that the former terrorists were convicted in trials held in Italy without them being present, and on the fact that in France they have now created a permanent professional and family reality. The majority of them are former members of the Red Brigades who have been convicted by final decisions by the Italian judiciary. Among them Giovanni Alimondi, Enzo Calviti, Marina Petrella and Roberta Capelli.

As the newspaper Corriere della Sera underlines, “this decision is a defeat for the Italian and also for the French authorities, who had given the “green light” on April 27, 2021 for the arrest of the ten former terrorists, with the operation ” red shadows””.

Commenting on the decision, Italian journalist Mario Calabresi (son of a police chief killed by terrorists) said: “The judges justified their decision by saying that granting the extradition would cause a disproportionate harm to the ten convicts. But think of the disproportionate damage caused by those who murdered fathers and husbands, innocent family men. None of them uttered a single word of remorse, solidarity or reparation.”

“My country did everything it could. I thanked my French colleague, who stood by us, and in my thoughts at this moment I am on the side of the families of the victims”, Italian Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio underlined for his part.