Italian neo-fascist bomber held after sentencing for 1974 attack

Rome, June 21 (IANS/AKI) Portuguese police on Wednesday arrested 65-year-old neo-fascist Maurizio Tramonte a day after Italy's top court sentenced him to life in prison for the deadly 1974 bombing of a trade union rally in the northern city of Brescia.

Italy's Court of Cassation also jailed 84-year-old neo-fascist Carlo Maria Maggi, for life on Tuesday over the Brescia blast, ending of the most complex and longest-running legal cases linked to decades of far-right and far-left terrorist attacks in Italy from the late 1960s to the 1980s.

Maggi was convicted of masterminding the May 28, 1974 bombing at an anti-fascist rally in Brescia's Piazza La Loggia organised by left-wing trade unions in which eight people died and around 100 were injured, while Tramonte was found guilty of carrying out the attack.

A total of 15 different trials were held in connection with the Brescia blast, during which several other suspects were convicted and acquitted on appeal. The main suspect in the original trial was killed in prison by other neo-fascists before his appeal.

The Brescia bombing took place during the turmoil of Italy's so-called Years of Lead when some 455 people were killed and 4,529 injured in over 5,000 politically-motivated attacks, according to one victims' group.

--IANS/AKI

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