Italian Communist Militant Cesare Battisti Confesses to 4 Murders

Italian Communist Militant Cesare Battisti Confesses to 4 Murders
Italian communist militant Cesare Battisti steps off a plane coming from Bolivia in Rome on Jan. 14, 2019. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)

An Italian communist terrorist has admitted murdering four people following his extradition from Bolivia to Italy.

Cesare Battisti, 64, had been on the run since the killings in the late 1970s but during that time was protected by the French and Brazilian governments.

Battisti was convicted in absentia of murdering a policeman and a prison guard, and participating in the killings of a butcher and a jeweler who had defended themselves against left-wing militants.

He confessed in jail over the weekend of March 23, magistrate Alberto Nobili said, according to local media reports.

“When I killed I believed it was a just war,” Battisti reportedly told Nobili.

Italian communist militant Cesare Battisti is escorted by police officers
Italian communist militant Cesare Battisti is escorted by police officers after stepping off a plane coming from Bolivia in Rome on Jan. 14, 2019. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)

Battisti has previously denied any involvement in the murders.

He also confessed to assaulting three people and participated in robberies to finance the extreme left terrorist group Armed Proletarians for Communism.

“I realize the harm I have done and I apologize to the families [of the victims],” Battisti said in his confession.

Nobili said Battisti was questioned for nine hours at a high-security prison in Sardinia. He said it “felt like I was watching the liberation of someone who was initially embarrassed, troubled,” according to The Local Italy.

Years of Lead

Battisti’s killings occurred during Italy’s Years of Lead when groups from both the extreme right and extreme left committed acts of violence against each other, mostly between 1970 and 1985.

After being convicted in 1979 for being part of a Marxist group, Battisti escaped from prison in Italy and fled the country.

He was protected in France by socialist president Francois Mitterand, where Battisti wrote a series of novels based on his life, claiming that he had been framed by Italy.

Under the so-called Mitterrand doctrine, far-left terrorists who fled to France would not be extradited to Italy amid distrust of the Italian courts.

The policy was repealed in 2002, following which French officials authorized the extradition of Battiste. However, he had already fled to Brazil, where he was given political asylum by socialist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The asylum ended in December 2018, with Battisti heading to Bolivia, after which he was arrested in January this year.

Italian ultra-leftist militant Cesare Battisti
Italian ultra-leftist militant Cesare Battisti in Cananeia, Brazil on Oct. 20, 2017. (Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images)

Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said those who protected Battisti should now also apologize.

“Cesare Battisti has apologized a few decades after the fact,” Salvini said, according to Ansa.

“Now I expect those left-wing pseudo-intellectuals who covered for and defended this squalid character to apologize too. It’s better to say sorry late than never,” Salvini said.

However, the relatives of some of Battisti’s victims were not so welcoming of his apologies.

“I think his lawyer is advising him so he can have his sentence reduced,” Maurizio Campagna, brother of the policeman Battisti murdered, told Italian-language TV Sky TG24.

The murders were “pure cowardice, not even terrorism. They were just murders made by serial killers like Battisti and his gang,” Campagna added.

Adriano Sabbadin, son of the murdered butcher Lino Sabbadin, told Il Dubbio he hoped Battisti would now “reflect on the evil he has done.”

Italy is also attempting to extradite 14 terrorists still believed to be in France, including Narciso Manenti, a leftist terrorist who killed a policeman in front of his teenage son in 1979. He is now reportedly an electrician in the French town Châlette-sur-Loing, about 70 miles south of Paris.

From The Epoch Times

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