30 held after French raids

Press, 31 March 1980, Page 8

30 held after French raids

NZPA-Reuter • Paris The .French police have detained 30 people, including three Italians sought in connection with the murder of the former Italian Prime Minister. Aldo Moro,- police sources-have said,' ‘ ■ Eight' other people, detained in raids on extremeLeftist militants in Paris and on . the Riviera- coast -had been‘ cleared after questioning, thev said. The raids also.netted more than 600 kg of explosives as well as sub-machine guns and hand grenades. _ In Rome, police said the three people detained in France and suspected of taking part in the 1978 kidnapping of Mr Moro were Franco Pinna, Enrico Bianco, and his wife, Orianna Marchionni. Warrants for their arrests were issued - in Italy shortly after Mr Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades terrorist group. He was killed after two months in captivity.

The Italian police said Olga Girotto, aged .23, had also been detained in France. She' jumped bail in 1978 after being arrested on suspicion of belonging to an armed band. ' , • \ The French raids coincided with a similar sweep in Ttalian cities in which 19 people, including several foreigners, were arrested. The French action was aimed at a shadowy group called “Direct. Action” which recently machine-gun-ned Government offices in Paris and was thought to-be connected with the-Red Brigades, according to police sources.

Most of those detained in France were aged 25 to 30 and included several women, the sources said.

The police believe that large sums of money found at the homes of several of those detained in southern France came from a s4million hold-up- near the Belgian border last (northern) isummer, the sources said.