August 1980 Bologna Bombing - Prosecution and Trial

Prosecution and Trial

Already on August 26, 1980, the prosecutor of Bologna issued twenty-eight arrest warrants against extreme right militants of the NAR: Roberto Fiore, Massimo Morsello (future founders of Forza Nuova), Gabriele Adinolfi, Francesca Mambro, Elio Giallombardo, Amedeo De Francisci, Massimiliano Fachini, Roberto Rinani, Giuseppe Valerio Fioravanti, Claudio Mutti, Mario Corsi, Paolo Pizzonia, Ulderico Sica, Francesco Bianco, Alessandro Pucci, Marcello Iannilli, Paolo Signorelli, PierLuigi Scarano, Francesco Furlotti, Aldo Semerari, Guido Zappavigna, GianLuigi Napoli, Fabio De Felice, Maurizio Neri. They will be interrogated in Ferrara, Rome, Padua and Parma. All will be released from prison in 1981.

A long, troubled and controversial court case and political issue ensued. The relatives of the victims formed an association (Associazione dei familiari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980) to raise and maintain civil awareness about the case.

Main stages of the trial:

• January 19, 1987: Start of first trial;
• October 25, 1989: Beginning of the appeal process;
• July 18, 1990: judgment, the defendants were all acquitted of murder;
• February 12, 1992: the United Sections of the Criminal Court of Cassation declared the appeal process must be redone, because the sentence is deemed "illogical, incoherent, not assessing proofs and evidence in good terms, not taking into account the facts preceding and following the event, unmotivated or poorly motivated, in some parts the judges supporting unlikely arguments that not even the defense had argued";
• October 1993: the second appeal trial begins;
• May 16, 1994: the second appeal judgment confirms the first trial judgment;
• November 23, 1995: the final judgment of the Court of Cassation confirms the one of the second appeal trial.

A trial involving 20 suspects was initiated in 1987.

In July 1988, four neo-fascists received life terms for the bombing: Valerio Fioravanti (23 at the time of the blast), Francesca Mambro (born in 1960), Massimiliano Fachini and Sergio Picciafuoco. They also received sentences for belonging to an armed group, as well as Paolo Signorelli and Roberto Rinani, who were absolved of the charge for carrying out the attack. Licio Gelli, leader of the masonic P2 lodge, as well as three others, Francesco Pazienza, Pietro Musumeci and Giuseppe Belmonte, received sentences for slandering the investigation. Stefano Delle Chiaie, who was arrested in and extradited from Venezuela a year earlier, was absolved from the charge of subversive association.

Two years later, in July 1990, an appeals court cancelled the convictions of the defendants Valerio Fioravanti; his wife, Francesca Mambro; Massimiliano Fachini; and Sergio Picciafuoco, as well as the slander convictions of Gelli and Pazienza. A retrial was ordered in October 1993.

On 23 November 1995, the Court of Cassation (Corte di Cassazione) issued the final sentence:

• Confirmation of life imprisonment to the neo-fascists Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro, members of the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR)—who have always maintained their innocence—for executing the attack.
• Sentence for investigation diversion to Licio Gelli (headmaster of P2), Francesco Pazienza and to SISMI officers Pietro Musumeci and Giuseppe Belmonte.

In April 1998, the former fascist Francesca Mambro was authorized to leave her prison during the day, and carried out activities against the death penalty in the headquarters of the Radical Party.

In 2004, Luigi Ciavardini, who had been a 17-year-old NAR member associated closely with the Terza Posizione at the time of the Bologna massacre, received a 30-year prison sentence for his role in the attack, which was upheld by the Court of Cassation in April 2007. Freed by the Italian justice until the sentence of the Court of the Cassation, Ciavardini had been imprisoned in October 2006, after being arrested following the armed robbery of the Banca Unicredito di Roma on 15 September 2005. Ciavardini was also charged with the assassination of Francesco Evangelista on 28 May 1980, and the assassination of judge Mario Amato in June 1980.

To date those responsible for the attack and their political motives remain unknown. Some suspect that the Operation Gladio network had been at least partially involved.