/06/2004

What follows is a series of events directly leading up to and during what has come to be known as the ‘Marini trial’. It in no way encompasses all the acts of rebellion or the response of the forces of repression involving anarchists and rebels in Italy during the period covered.

Some events which came to be attributed to anarchists took place in years far preceding 1994. They were then inserted into the ‘theorem’ and phantom organisation, the ‘O.R.A.I.’ so dear to public prosecutor Marini, who took many years and great pains to ensure that the comrades accused would spend centuries behind bars. As this website develops, the whole incredible picture should emerge for comrades to see and draw their own conclusions.

We know that no selection of data is objective, and some may not agree with what we have chosen to include in this list. However, it is not final and can be added to at any time. We do not consider ourselves ‘writers of history’ or holders of the truth. We do consider it important for anarchists and all those who still think for themselves to have access to this material in order to see the development of the repressive strategies of power, and as a basis for active solidarity with the comrades involved.

It should nevertheless be clear that judges cannot be divided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, just as there are not ‘good’ laws and ‘bad’ laws. The whole legal system is one of the greatest swindles on earth. Millions of people’s lives are locked into the drudgery of work and obedience in the name of the law, which they are told respects their individuality and freedom.

The State will always find willing servants for whom it is all in a day’s work to eliminate the unruly, the untamed, those who refuse exploitation, take the wrong drugs, have the wrong nationality, etc etc. Some of these dutiful servants work by the book, others stretch the rules, but the end result is the same: to maintain the workings of capital and defend the real and only terrorist, the State.

Chronology

September 1994

19/09 – Anarchists Antonio Budini, Jean Weir, Carlo Tesseri, Christos Stratigopulous and Eva Tziutzia are arrested near Rovereto following an armed robbery in the Rural Savings Bank of Serravalle, in Trentino, Italy.
– Raid on Antonio Budini’s house in Milan.
20/09 – Press and local TV in the Rovereto/Trento area give vent to hysterical fantasies denouncing international criminal organisations, Red Brigades connections, terrorist gangs, etc, and accuse the comrades of being responsible for other robberies in the area.
– Individual anarchists from Rovereto immediately denounce the obvious intention of the police and the press to build a frame up, and leaflet and flypost the area.
– Comrades in many towns all over Italy also show their unconditional solidarity with the arrested anarchists in various kinds of initiative.
– Meanwhile the “Fronte della Gioventù” (young fascists) of Rovereto collect signatures to have the self-managed centre Clinamen closed by police, and that night set fire to the main door.
30/09 – Summary trial of the five anarchists takes place in Rovereto town court. The public gallery is full, dozens of comrades have come from all over the country to show their support. Press photographers and TV camermen are thrown out of court. The trial ends with three five year sentences (Antonio, Christos, Jean), one six years (Carlo, because he is not a first offender for robbery), and Eva is acquitted.
– The men are transferred to Trento prison as proceedings have begun against them concerning two unsolved robberies in Ravina, Trento.
– Declaration by arrested anarchists.
– Jean transferred to Vicenza prison in the Veneto region.
– A national poster is produced by 40 groups and flyposted in many towns, cities and villages.

October 1994

– ID parades in Trento for Antonio, Carlo Jean and Christos. The witnesses see them walk by in handcuffs, and in any case already know their faces from the many photographs published on the front pages of the local press, on TV, etc.

November 1994

– An anarchist in Naples is summoned to Carabinieri barracks and questioned concerning her presence at the trial in Rovereto. Held for a number of hours, she refuses to answer questions, stating that anarchists give solidarity to other anarchists without necessarily knowing them personally.
– Formal charges made against Antonio, Carlo, Christos and Jean concerning two robberies carried out contemporaneously in Ravina, Trento.
– Anarchists flyposting national poster Fuori legge, fuori del gregge are stopped and taken to Rovereto police station. The press seize the opportunity to talk about the robberies again, describing the anarchists held that night as “extremely dangerous”.
– Anarchists held by police in Cuneo, after being stopped flyposting national poster. Each fined 600.000 lire.

December 1994

4/12- Panzerknackerparty held in Munich in solidarity with imprisoned comrades.
14/12 – Raid on the house where anarchist weekly “Canenero” is edited and printed, with warrant looking for “documentation concerning the committing of armed robberies”.
19/12 – Four addresses in Milan raided, including the Anarchist Laboratory in via De Amicis. Another raid in Aosta.
24/12 – Turin – Robbery Rave all night fund raising party in support of the comrades.

January 1995

01/01- A busload of anarchists turn up outside Vicenza prison next to American military base to celebrate New Year with flares and fireworks. For half an hour the sky is alight and the deathly silence of the prison is broken by all the prisoners shouting, singing and banging tin plates on the bars for twenty minutes. The night visitors disappear into the darkness after decorating the walls with paint bombs and leaving a banner “Jean free, Fire to all prisons”.
– A dossier “Hands Up” is distributed at national level.
14/01- Verona tribunal orders that no. 9 of anarchist weekly “Canenero” be confiscated from Jean as this short article describing the New Year festivities could “represent a danger to the internal security of the prison”. A police helicopter is parked permanently just by the women’s exercise yard.
20/01- Jean transferred to Opera prison, near Milan.
30/01- The Public Prosecutor in Rovereto appeals against the September sentence which he considers too lenient, and asks for trial to be re-opened.

February 1995

28/02 – Four raids in Rome on the homes of anarchists and premises of “Anarchismo Editions”. One raid in Trento. Five raids in Rovereto, on the homes of anarchists and the Clinamen centre, “searching for Alfredo Bonanno”, who is working on “Canenero” at a house raided at the end of last year.

March 1995

06/03- Another police raid in Trento.

April 1995

19/04- Preliminary hearing in Trento court concerning the two robberies in July, which Carlo, Christos, Antonio and Jean are formally charged with. Trial set for October 13, 1995 in Trento.

May 1995

30/05 – about 30 anarchists set rockets and flares over the prison walls in Trento in solidarity with the comrades being held there. 28 are held, four are issued with explusion orders from the area.

June 1995

01/06 – Appeal trial against September sentences in Trento. All sentences reduced by 1 year 8 months. However, the judges square their accounts by also sentencing Eva to 3 years 8 months. Dozens of anarchists fill the court and an adjacent building. Clashes with police.

October 1995

13/10 – Trial against four anarchists opens in Trento court. Many comrades turn up inside and in front of the court. A new hearing is set for 14 November.

November 1995

14/11 – The accused and many anarchists from all over Italy turn up in court for the hearing in Trento. The hearing is postponed to December 12.
16/11 – A massive police operation takes place all over Italy including Sicily and Sardinia. Hundreds of masked Carabinieri special squads wielding machine guns raid about 60 anarchists at dawn, on the orders of substitute public prosecutor Antonio Marini. They are notified that investigations are in course related to charges such as “clandestine organisation”, “subversion against the State” “attacks on public structures” “concourse in robbery” “possession of arms and explosives”, and “concourse in murder”.
17/11 – Trento, Opera, etc – anarchists serving sentences are now subjected to ROS raids on the cells they are being held in.
– A poster denouncing Marini is printed and flyposted by anarchists all over Italy.

December 1995

12/12 – Trento. The four accused anarchists are transferred for the court hearing. Many comrades come from all over Italy in solidarity. The hearing is postponed again, this time to January 1996.1996

January 1996

03/01 – A press communique issued by Marini appears in all the national dailies in which the anarchists under investigation are presented as kidnappers and terrorists, announcing the existence of a mysterious “pentita”(‘repentant terrorist’).
9/01 – Trento – The hearing finally begins in Trento. A document is presented to the court. It is the declaration of Mojdeh Namsetchi, Carlo’s girlfriend who had not been in touch with him for a long time. Now he knows why: she has been collaborating with the Rome Attorney’s office for months. For security reasons she is to be questioned via cable video, in according with a law passed a few days before. So the hearing is postponed to January 16 in order to have time to set up the necessary equipment.
16/01 – The public gallery in Trento court is full of anarchists. Many who did not get in demonstrate outside. To everyone’s surprise and amusement the “pentita” accuses herself of carrying out one of the robberies in question along with the anarchists in the dock. She also succeeds in accusing three other comrades. When questioned she states she has never had anything to do with anarchism, and that she carried out the robbery “for love”.
25/01 – Offices of communist newspaper ‘Il Manifesto’ occupied by anarchists in protest against the latter’s acritical publishing of police reports.
31/01 – Trento – final hearing of the trial against the anarchists already imprisoned for robbery, now also accused of belonging to the ‘Organisation’. Cops with truncheons charge the anarchists who have come to show their solidarity inside the court building. At 10 p.m., after two hours deliberation, the riot cops burst into the court brandishing truncheons, The judges reappear and sentence Jean, Antonio and Christos to 6 years, Carlo to seven.

February 1996

23/02 – Rome: Bomb attack on Air Force headquarters causing millions of lire damage.

March 1996

07/03 – Florence: attack against Eurofor barracks. These two actions are dedicated to Marini and Ionta and signed ‘long live anarchy’.
21/03 – Cagliari: attack on town hall electoral offices. Many Sardinian anarchists’ and independentists’ homes raided.

September 1996

15/09 – Christos Stratigopulous starts a hunger strike in Novara prison.
17/09 – Rome, Catania, Florence, Rovereto, Turin, Milan, etc, etc. G.I.P. Claudio D’Angelo (Judge for preliminary investigations), on request of Public Prosecutors Antonio Marini and Franco Ionta, signs 29 arrest warrants against anarchists. Twelve are arrested, nine are already serving prison sentences, others escape arrest (some are captured later). They are charged, along with 39 other people, of belonging to an “armed clandestine organisation”, as well as conspiracy, murder, robbery, bombings, kidnapping, etc., etc. Marini holds a jubiliant press conference to inform the Italian public that a dangerous gang of anarchist criminals has been dismantled. He even gives it a name, the O.R.A.I., and a leader, Alfredo Maria Bonanno.
– Salvatore Gugliara, one of the arrested comrades, immediately begins a hunger strike in Rebibbia prison. He ends it on September 29.
– Anarchists print 25,000 copies of Dossier “With Every Means Necessary” and dstribute it throughout Italy.
24/09 – A national flyer is distributed against the repression.

October 1996

02/10 – Police raid four anarchists of Applequince Records in Viterbo, charged with “subversive association in compliance with unknown persons”. Records, leaflets, fanzines, spray cans and video tapes seized.
10/10 – Teramo 3 youths stopped by police while flyposting “Uncontrollable” poster. Held for questioning. Press headlines about dangerous anarchists.
14/10 – Salvatore Gugliera resumes hunger strike. He is later released under house arrest due to his state of health. Meanwhile Giuseppina Riccobono and Tiziano Andreotti have also begin hunger strikes.
– Rome: Christina Lo Forte, Salvatore Gugliara and Apollonia Cortimiglia are released under house arrest. (Marini trial). Francesco Berlemmi and Stefano Moreale are released.
23/10 – Giuseppina Riccobono begins hungerstrike in Rebibbia prison.
23/10 – A number of anarchists are held for questioning after 2 groups hand out leaflets in front of the carabinieri barracks. Another is held after showing a transparency “Marini Terrorist” in the city centre.
24/10 – Graffiti artist expressing himself about Marini is beaten up by off-duty finance cop.
24/10 – Verona – unknown hands paper all the panels and sculptures of an exhibition sponsored by the town council and various companies in the Gran Guardia palace. They also spray words of solidarity with the arrested anarchists on the walls. The exhibition is cancelled.
30/10 – Declaration signed by 9 anarchists in jail.

November 1996

02-03/11 – ‘Cash dispensers – a massacre’ was the title in a local newspaper reporting incidents during the night of Nov 2/3 in Trento and surrounding 150 km when over a hundred cash dispensers were put out of action. Observation of cameras was of no help in identifying the offenders as they were all masked. They are said to have used a simple system: the opening for the plastic cards was sealed using silicon and small pieces of iron.. The material damage has been estimated at one billion lire (over a million pounds). That is without taking into account the damage caused by the inactivity of the dispensers. The ‘massacre’ took place a few days before the trial of the anarchists charged with bank robbery.
05/11 – Verona – Two squats raided by carabinieri “searching for anarchists”.
06/11 – Carabinieri raid home of Italino Rossi, editor of the anarchist weekly Umanita Nova, of the Italian anarchist Federation, looking for weapons connected with attacks on electric pylons in Tuscany.
06/11 – Raids at La Spezia and Sarzana, looking for material “defamating the upholders of public order”. Papers (including Canenero), and punk fanzines, seized, as well as articles and letters from prison.
07/11 – Appeal trial in Trento of the four anarchists accused of the bank robberies in Ravina. About 100 comrades present. After 10 hours, court decides to ajourn proceedings to December 13 in order to interview the “pentita” Mojdeh Namsetchi, and Maresciallo Farini (the Carabinieri officer who “convinced” her to collaborate).
12/11 – Salvatore Gugliara is released under house arrest. Sentence for robbery postponed to 13 December.
14/11 – Rome: Giuseppina Riccobono, who commenced a hunger strike on October 23, is released under house arrest but is forbidden to communicate with anybody.
– Eduardo Massari is released after doing 1 year 8 months for possession of explosive substances.
22/11 – Turin – CDA (Anarchist Defence Committee) send an open letter to all imprisone comrades.
29/11 – An open letter from the Anarchist Defence Committee: Giuseppina Riccobono, Cristina Lo Forte, Salvatore Gugliara and Apollonia Cortimiglia are under house-arrest. Francesco Berlemmi and Stefano Moreale are free. Still in prison are: Antonio Budini, Carlo Tesseri, Christos Stratigopulos, Jean Weir, Garagin Gregorian, Emma Sassosi, Antonio Gizzo, Horst Fantazzini, Alfredo Bonanno, Orlando Campo, Francesco Porcu, Tiziano Andreozzi, Paolo Ruberto, Marco Camenisch.

December 1996

04/12 – Malaga, Spain – three armed, masked inviduals, break into the Italian vice consulate in Malaga, Spain. They force the consul to write a statement “against judges and the law, in favour of Italian prisoners”. The “Free Hearts” then search the archives of the consulate, cut the telephone wires, and spray the walls before leaving the building, not forgetting to take passports, stamps and money.
07/12 – A handful of squatters dare to climb up on to the roof of Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) in the centre of Turin. They hoist flags, place a puppet, hang a transparency and throw leaflets entitled ‘Anarchists have Wings’. In this way they draw attention to the preliminary hearing of the strange investigation by public prosecutors Marini and Ionta.
10/12 – Date fixed for the preliminary hearing in Rome for the G.I.P. (Judge for preliminary investigations) to decide whether to press charges against the 60 anarchists accused of belonging to a clandestine organisation. Postponed to January 16 and 24.
10/12 – Rome – Shock for commuters after about 100 doors of 27 underground stations had to be broken open after being sealed during the night with iron filings, silicon and liquid steel, to let them on their way to their daily grind on the day fixed for the preliminary hearing in that city.
10/12 – In Florence public prosecutors were paid a visit by about 30 influential residents : businessmen, local politicians, city councillors, journalists, university lecturers, etc, somewhat nervous after a sleepless night, having received summons, signed by public prosecutor Marini, inviting them to report to the public prosecutor’s office at short notice. The said office states “It was a well done fake, posted to hundreds of mailboxes”.
13/12 – Appeal proceedings against the four anarchists in Trento. A spokesman for Maresciallo Farini, the ROS official responsible for the collaborator’s “confession” after visiting her in the night club where she worked, and who had been called as a key witness in the trial, states that he will be unable to attend as he on six month’s “sickness leave” following a “bullet wound received in the course of his duty”. So nobody will ever be able to ask him any embarrassing questions about how he managed to meet this girl.
Mojdeh Namsetchi’s cross-examination is carried out in closed session. All the comrades are thrown out of the court and she is hidden behind a screened partition, guarded by four Carabinieri of the ROS special task force. Even after all this time in State-financed seclusion she has not rehearsed her role as chief witness. Once again her examination was a Punch-and-Judy comedy which even left the vice prosecutor slightly dazed. After a series of ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I can’t remember’ she got tangled up in even more inconsistencies than before. She left the courtroom weeping, alone and in dispair. A bank employee didn’t confirm the girl’s statements but described the female robber completely differently.
A sentence of two years for all is pronounced, the motivations will not be known for a month. Which version will they choose? The answer will be given in two months. The sentences are reduced to 2 years.
16/12 – Employees of the Court of Supervision in Bologna found themselves waiting in front of the building staring at the graffiti ‘Marini & Ionta – Terrorists’ and ‘Freedom for All’ and encircled A’s on the wall. Some individuals had locked the court doors using silicon and nails which required the intervention of the fire brigade. The preliminary trial in the Marini inquiry is postponed to January 16 1997.
18/12 – Bologna: Court of Cassation squashes the sentence of the Appeal court in the Silocchi kidnapping which Gregorian Garagin, Orlando Campo, Francesco Porcu, all involved in the Marini inquiry, have been accused of. The third degree court (Cassation) decides the trial must be repeated. Another trial will therefore be held in Bologna Appeal Court.
– Cordoba, Spain – Four comrades, two of which are Italian anarchists Michele Pontolillo and Giovanni Barcia, are arrested following a robbery that ends in a shoot-out where two policewomen are killed.
28/12 – Turin – CDA Bulletin.

January 1997

01/01 – Aosta – arson attacks against the court, some bank agencies and the Alpine club. Claimed in a letter signed with an encircled “A”: “Aosta, 2.1.97: In Spain as in Italy: freedom for the comrades”.
10/01 – Turin – CDA finds lawyers to contact those in Spain.
16/01 – Rome: in the bunker courtroom in Rebibbia prison the preliminary inquest of judge Marini is again put off. Marini is asking for the two anarchists arrested in Spain to be extradited.
20/01 – Preliminary trial for the Marini inquiry has been postponed to 19, 20, 22, 24 March 1997.

February 1997

12/02 – Marseilles, France – Salvatore Condrò arrested with an international arrest warrant. He is charged with participation in a car bomb attempt in Rome in 1989, and with being a member of the “armed organisation ORAI”.
21/02 – Rome – Request made to Tribunale Della Liberta (Court of Freedom (!)) for release of Paolo Ruberto and Appollonia Cortimiglia.
28/02 – Anarchist Defence Committee bulletin issued.

March 1997

– Document in Spanish concerning the four comrades arrested 18/12/96 in Spain.
14/03 – Anarchist Massimo Passamani, accused of being the ‘treasurer’ of the ‘Organisation’ after sending money orders to the imprisoned anarchists with contributions from various benefits in anarchist squats, is arrested in Paris. Marini made a request for him to be extradited but this was refused.
15/03 – Bologna – Demonstrators who turn a demo into an expropriation party are sentenced to house arrest. The police reports dutifully reproduced by the press talk of the “clandestine organisation”.
15/03 – Foggia, anarchist squatters “guilty” of sticking up posters about Marini are sentenced to house arrest.
19/03 – Preliminary hearing for the Marini inquiry is postponed again to 6, 8 and 10 May –

April 1997

16/04 – News of the two Italian anarchists arrested in France. French judges are probably not going to extradite them.
– Early in the month eight people are beaten and arrested in a selfmanaged squatted social centre in Florence during a benefit gig for the anarchists on trial. Result of the evening: eight arrests, several injured after an all night battle. All released two days later, but have to report to carabinieri station once a week.
25/04 – Milan – A bomb explodes outside the City Hall, Palazzo Marino, breaking a window and damaging the main hall. Responsibility is claimed by “Azione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica” (Anarchist Revolutionary Action). Delirium in the judiciary and the press: charges of “slaughter” are to be inferred on the culprits.
21/04 – The press circulate a blurred photograph from the CCTV camera outside the premises of Radio Popolare (communist radio station) in Milan after a “postwoman” hands in a letter claiming the attack. A reward of 10,000,000 lire is offered to anyone who recognizes the woman in the picture.

May 1997

13/05 – Rome – Preliminary hearing posponed once again, this time to 1, 2, 15 and 17 July in order for Marini to be able to collect more proof and documents, including material on websites used by the ‘terrorists’! Judge Marini seems very upset by this public diffusion of news and updates on the net.

June 1997

12/06 – Raids in Florence and Turin ordered by Public Prosecutor Alessandro Crini of Florence for conspiracy and instigation to commit a crime. Four investigated by Marini for subversive association in Pescara.
20/06 – Milan – Anarchist Patrizia Cadeddu is arrested and charged with being the person who delivered the letter claiming responsibility for the bomb against Palazzo Marino last month. She was ‘identified’ from a blurred CCTV image by two colleagues at work after a company in Rome, SOS Italia, offered a premium of 10 million lire to anyone who recognised the woman on video. Meantime, the Laboratorio Anarchico is raided, evicted and walled up.
– The same day, a dozen raids take place in Turin, Milan, Venice, Verona, Bordighera, San Remo and Cagliari.
25/06 – Paris: at the Chambre d’Accusation a hearing took place for the extradition of Massimo Passamani, accused in the Marini inquest.

July 1997

01/07 – Marini inquest re-opens.
02/07 – Preliminary hearings at Marini trial begin in Rome and will continue on July 12.
10/07 – Turin – An internal document is sent anonymously to Radio Blackout, a free radio in the city. It is a 14-page document drawn up by the R.O.S., special operations regroupment of the Carabinieri which runs through the last 20 years of investigations and plots against anarchists by the carabinieri and judiciary, and outlines the setting up of “key witness”, the “repentant” Modjeh Namstchi. At this time the general investigative methods used by the Carabinieri are being questioned by the press, following the discovery of illegal activities ordered and carried out by major police officers (including drug trafficking and false evidence given by police informers). The report on Italian anarchism anonymously sent to Radio Blackout, ‘for internal use only’, confirms that unlawful practices have also been used to collect evidence against the anarchists.
18/07 – Rome – Result of the preliminary hearing against the anarchists: they will be formally prosecuted for terrorism and subversion. The trial will begin on October 20, 1997, in Rome.
25/07 – Turin – Radio Blackout is raided by the Carabinieri. The search warrant is signed by judges Marini, Ionta and De Crescenzo. The aim of the raid is to collect information and evidence about the ‘Informative note for internal use only’ anonymously sent to Radio Blackout a few days previously. http://www.ecn.org/zero/cda/press/ros.htm

August 1997

04/08/1997- Turin – Radio Blackout intimidated again. The special squad come in with an order signed by Marini and Ionta to sieze the inkject printer, implicitly accusing Radio Blackout of having forged the “Information Note” received anonymously some weeks before. Leading the raids was one of the signatories of the document himself.
27/08/1997 – Turin – Anarchist Defence Committee bulletin comes out summarizing the current situation of imprisoned anarchists in Italy both for Marini’s and other enquiries.

October 1997

19/10 – Athens, Greece – A bomb explodes outside the Italian Embassy and leaflets are handed out in solidarity with the Italian anarchists due on trial next day.
20/10 – First hearing of the Marini enquiry, mainly dedicated to carrying out administrative preliminary operations. Next hearing scheduled for Monday, December 1st. The R.O.S. document which proves the existence of a plot against the anarchists is declared false and discarded.
21/10 – News about international events supporting the Italian anarchists. German translation.
25/10 – Rome – Emma Sassosi and Alfredo Bonanno are released from Rebibbia prison because of a “miscarriage of justice”, as they, along with all the other anarchists arrested by Marini and Ionta, had been held illegally, not having been questioned within five days of arrest by the G.I.P. D’Angelo.
26/10 – Unexploded bomb found in a briefcase outside the building of the Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia (Ministry of Justice). No responsibility is claimed for it. Again the press talk of the “armed organisation” invented by Marini.

November 1997

02/11 – Letter written by Guido Mantelli and Roberta Nano, two wanted anarchists charged with subversive association by judge Marini.

December 1997

01/12 – Rome – Second hearing of trial in the special bunker courtroom in piazzale Clodio.
Antonio Gizzo, one of the arrested anarchists, is released under home arrest, due to a “miscarriage of justice”.
– R.O.S. document printed and widely distributed.
08/12 – Cordoba, Spain – First preliminary hearing of four anarchists arrested in Spain following failed robbery.
09/12 – Pescara – Anarchist arrested. He had been sentenced to six months for insulting a police officer.
10/12 – Paris – Demonstration in support of Massimo Passamani, arrested in Paris in May. Today judges are to decide whether to extradite him to Italy or not.
13/12 – Milan – Trial of Patrizia Cadeddu, arrested after the bomb in Milan, is set for February 16.
19/12 – Paris – The National Office for Italian Tourism in Paris occupied against the jailing of Massimo Passamani, accused of belonging to Marini’s phantom organisation.

January 1998

09/01 – Update on Silocchi retrial.
13/01 – Rome – Second hearing of trial. Freedom has been requested for the anarchists still in prison. A decision is expected in the next few days.
18/01 – Turin – Another raid on Radio Blackout. A computer, printer and dozens of discs are seized.
28/01 – Amsterdam – An Italian anarchist accused in Marini enquiry is arrested.

February 1998

03/02 – Turin – CDA, Anarchist Defence Committee is disbanded.
04/02 – Paris – Massimo Passamani is released from prison where he has been held for some months.
08/02 – Rome – reports about hearings of trial (on 26/1 and 2/2) by Tactical Media Crew.
09/02 – Rome – Marini trial hearing.
16/02 – Milan – Trial of Patrizia Cadeddu.
16/02 – Rome – Marini trial hearing.
23/02 – Rome – hearing at Marini trial.

March 1998

6-7/03 – Riots and street fighting in Turin after three squats are raided and two are evicted and trashed. Three people are jailed. Report by Radio Blackout.
09/03 – Turin – El Paso charged with illegal apology of crime after comrades distribute a flyer expressing their solidarity with the rioters.
14/03 – Turin – Demonstration. Comments and fliers.
14/03 – News about the anarchists in Spain and involved in the Marini inquiry.
16/03 – Turin – more arrests and violence by police. Two more people are in jail.
17/03 – Turin – blockades in the streets and more demos for the liberation of the people in jail.
20/03 – Rome – report of Marini trial.
28/03 – Edoardo Massari (Baleno), 34 years old, is found hanged in a cell in “Le Vallette” prison in Turin. He was accused of belonging to a “clandestine armed organisation”, and “possession of explosives” along with his comrades Maria Soledad Rosas and Silvano Pelissero, related to acts of sabotage in Val de Susa against the high speed railway project which most of the local population are against.
29/03 – Maria Soledad and Silvano begin hunger strike.

April 1998

03/04 – Turin – Clashes between squatters and journalists at the funeral of Baleno.
04/04 – Turin – national demonstration following the death of Edoardo Massari in prison. 05/04/1998 – Turin – anarchists and journalists. A comment by El Paso.
08/04 – Turin – Further comment by El Paso about an article full of false statements that appeared in newspaper La Repubblica.
09/04 – Rome – Report about Marini trial.
13/04 – Turin – Radio Blackout and the Press: why we don’t speak to professional journalists.
14/04 – Turin – A short note by El Paso about the ‘cruel beating up’ that journalists constantly give to the anarchist movement and against individual freedom.
17/04 – Turin – an anarchist is arrested and two are wanted for the beating up of the journalists during the funeral of Edoardo Massari two weeks ago.
19/04 – Turin – The Pope is coming to Turin: the police forbid the counter-demo proposed by the squats.
22/04 – Turin – Silvano Pelissero transferred to maximum security prison in Novara, in order to take him away from solidarity demonstrations planned near prisons in Cuneo and Turin.
24/04 – Turin – Luca Bertola, the anarchist arrested for the beating of journalist Daniele Genco, is under house arrest.
26/04 – Ivrea – 13 convicted for demonstration in support of Edoardo Massari (Baleno) in 1993.
27/04 – Silvano ‘fascist’ like us: a comment by El Paso about the recent press attack on Silvano Pelissero.
28/04 – Turin – paint eggs against press headquarters.

June 1998

02/06 – Report of Marini trial in Rome.
15/06 – Cordoba Spain – further charges to the four anarchists arrested in Spain after a failed bank robbery.

July 1998

09/07 – Report about the hearing of the Marini trial in Rome.
11/07 – Maria Soledad Rosa is dead, she ‘committed suicide’ while under house arrest.
12/07 – Turin – Soledad is dead. No celebrations please.
14/07 – Turin – 1 + 1 = 2. TURIN HANGMAN. Flyer signed Asilo, Prinz, Barocchio, Alcova, La Casa, Punx a Pinerolo, Gabrio, Allblackoutribe.
14/07 – Turin – Three editors of Radio Blackout are to be put on trial. Trial fixed for April 1999.
18/07 – Novara – Freedom for Silvano, freedom for all, against the establishment and its structures. Flyer distributed by El Paso on demo outside special prison where Silvano is still imprisoned.
20/07 – Turin – Street blockades during the night in Turin. Dozens of masked people burn garbage cans in the city centre.
28/07 – Turin – Silvano’s trial is set for December 14 1998.

August 1998

31/07 – Turin – Solidarity to the project SOTTOIPONTI (the community that hosted Sole when she was under house arrest) by Asilo Occupato, Cascina, El Paso, Barocchio.

October 1998

13/10 – Report about the hearing of the Marini trial in Rome.

January 2000

21/01 – Hearing of the trial against Silvano Pelissero.
22/01 – Hearing of the Marini trial in Rome.
31/01 – Silvano convicted.

February 2000

17/02 – Report about hearing of Marini trial in Rome.
21/02 – Third day of final hearing in Marini trial.
22/02 – Another hearing of the Marini trial: Marini goes on and on.
23/02 – Trial day 5: Marini concludes.

May 2000

04/03 – Report on Marini trial: prosecutor speaks.
07/03 – Marini trial: first day for lawyers.
09/03 – Marini trial: Lawyer Calia asks that all her clients be acquitted.
31/03 – Rome – The trial against the 68 anarchists accused of being members of the ‘ORAI’ comes to an end. The main charge, that of belonging to the phantom organisation, is dropped.

February 2002

13/02 – Radio Blackout comrades acquitted in the trial concerning the ROS internal document which they had been accused of forging.

February 2003

01/02 – Sentences of second degree Marini trial are: Orlando campo- 10 years (1st degree 5 years); Angela Maria Lo Vecchio – 15 years (1st degree 12 years); Francesco Porcu – life plus day isolation for 18 months (same as before); Gregorian Garagin – 30 years plus 9 years (first degree 30 years plus 6 years); Rose Anne Scrocco – 30 years plus 15 (first degree 30 years plus 10; Alfredo Maria Bonanno 6 years plus 2,000 euros fine (first degree, 3 years and 6 months). All the other comrades were acquitted. Gregorian Garagin and Francesco Porcu are in prison.

April 2004

20/04 – Court of Cassation in Rome after three minutes confirms the conclusion of the appeal trial.
21/04 – Alfredo Bonanno, Maria Lo Vecchio, Orlando Campo, Carlo Tesseri are in prison.
Carlo Tesseri has now been released under house arrest.

Some ‘pre-chronology’ dates which Marini built into his theorem

1989

02/02 – Bergamo: holdup in a jeweller’s shop. Anarchists Alfredo Bonanno and Pippo Scarso arrested.

1991

07/05 – arms and explosives discovered in a cellar in Rome, along with some anarchist publications.
10/05 – press conference where judge Improta who presents the ‘theorem’ according to which those responsible for the kidnapping of a woman, M. Silocchi are a gang of Sardinians, and anarchists.
05/11 – Anarchist Marco Camenisch is arrested after a shootout in Carrara.

1993

First trial for Silocchi kidnapping: 6 life sentences (including 3 to anarchists) and another of 22 years to another anarchist.

1994

6-7/07 – Attacks on Berlusconi’s Standa stores in various cities.
20/07 – Trento – simultaneous robberies in two banks.

 

The New Inquisition A Grotesque Frameup Against Anarchists – in italy- 1994-2004