France/Italy

France will not extradite former Red Brigade member

Article published on the 2008-10-12 Latest update 2008-10-12 10:21 TU

Portraits of Petrella at a support rally in Paris in June
(Photo: AFP)

French President Sarkozy has decided not to extradite the former Red Brigade member Marina Petrella to Italy, because of her ailing health. Petrella was convicted in absentia in Italy for the murder of a police officer in Rome in 1981. The decision retracts an extradition authorisation Sarkozy had approved in June.

"This individual measure was taken in consideration of Mrs. Petrella’s health situation alone," said a statement from the Presidency.

"It does not lessen France's engagement in the fight against terrorism and its cooperation with other democracies in this area."

The Red Brigade, or Brigate rosse, was a left-wing group formed in the 1970s with the goal of creating a revolutionary state through armed struggle.

Petrella came to France in the early 1990s after the then Socialist president Francois Mitterand offered asylum to Red Brigade members, as long as they renounced their stance.

She was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in Italy in 1992 for her role in the murder of a police officer in Rome in 1981.

She was working as a social worker near Paris when she was arrested last August, after Sarkozy decided to renneg on the “Mitterand docotorine” of allowing former Red Brigade members to stay in France.

Petrella was released on bail this August after her physical condition had deteriorated to the point that doctors feared for her life. She had been refusing food, and had fallen into a deep depression. She has since been hospitalised in Paris.

Her husband said in August that the uncertainty was weighing on her and that her physical condition was deteriorating.

"Her liver was affected as well as other internal organs,” he told the Journal de Dimanche newspaper. “Her body has suffered a lot … her recovery will be long.”

Sarkozy’s decision to let her stay in France will have to be approved by the Council of State which will meet on Wednesday.