Cesare Battisti (born 1954) - Second Trial

Second Trial

Pietro Mutti, one of the leaders of the PAC who had been sentenced in absentia for the assassination of prison surveillant Santoro, was arrested in 1982. He sought the status of "collaboratore di giustizia" and his testimony, which helped him reduce his sentence, implicated Battisti (and an accomplice), in the four assassinations claimed by the PAC. Battisti's trial was thus reopened in 1987, and he was sentenced in absentia in 1988 for two assassinations (Santoro and DIGOS agent Campagna) and complicity of murder in the two other (jeweler Torregiani and butcher Sabbadin). The court sentenced him, in appeal, to a life-sentence in 1995. Two years before, the Court of Cassation had quashed, on procedural grounds, the case against Battisti's accomplice, accused by Pietro Mutti.

Two of the assassinations occurred on February 16, 1979, one at Milan at 15h, and the other in Mestre, 270 km away from Milan, at 16h50. Battisti was sentenced for materially committing the first assassination, and for planning the second one.