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ITALY: Right-wing bomber sentenced

01 January 2002

Andrea Insabato, a forty-one year old right winger with links to Forza Nuova leader Roberto Fiore, received a 12-year prison sentence on 6 February 2002 for a bomb attack on left-wing daily Il manifesto. Insabato attended his trial on a stretcher after being injured in the attack, which judge Luciano Pugliese deemed to be aimed at causing a massacre. The bomb exploded as he was on the third floor of a building in central Rome outside the Il manifesto head office on 22 December 2000. Insabato, a former member of International Third Position, denies the allegations. His sentence was reduced by a third because he accepted to be tried by a fast-track procedure whereby the first instance judge passes judgement on the basis of acquired documents without a public debate in front of a jury. Insabato availed himself of further mitigating circumstances, as he was considered mentally unstable at the time of the attack. Public prosecutors Franco Ionta and Pietro Saviotti had asked for a nine year sentence, but the judge added a further 3 years, considering the accused to be socially dangerous. Insabato has been accused on a number of occasions in relation to anti-homosexual and anti-Jewish initiatives, and was first arrested in 1975 for assaulting an office of the former communist party, PCI. Insabato’s lawyer Saverio Uva has announced that he will present an appeal, arguing that even if he had been guilty, “the sentence can’t be so harsh”.

Il manifesto 29.1.02, 7-8.2.02; Il Messaggero 13.6.01; Corriere della Sera 27.12.00, 7.2.02; Repubblica 1.8.01; www.ilnuovo.it 29.1.02.