Terrorists appeal to comrades to give up
NZPA-Reuter Verona, Italy : Four of 16 Red Brigades guerrillas who will be : accused in court today of ; kidnapping General James ; Dozier, have issued an appeal to their comrades to give lip their struggle against the State. The, appeal, given wide coverage in the Italian media yesterday, said the Red Brigades’ five-year campaign had been a gamble with‘'history that had been lost. " The guerrillas had failed-to. win support from the industrial proletariat, it said.:. Since their arrest the four signatories, two men and two women,, have given vital information to the authorities and. more than 200 suspected guerrillas have been seized. • The; signatories, arid four other guerrillas, will appear in a Verona court in a specially built steel cage. A huge security operation has - been inounted for the trial. . The remaining eight defendants are still at large and will be tried in their absence. ' Five of the eight defendants appearing in Verona’s Assize Court were arrested when a police anti-terrorist squad freed General Dozier
from 42 days captivity in Padua., on January 28. The general is the highest ranking American officer at a N.A.T.O. land forces base at Verona, in northern Italy. He has returned to his job after home leave but it is not certain whether he will testify at the trial. The court president is expected to adjourn the summary trial for at least a week soon after it begins to allow defence lawyers to study the charges. Antonio Savasta, Cesar Di Leonardo, and five others are charged with conspiracy to kidnap General Dozier and the remainder are charged with playing some role in the abduction and the illegal detention of the general”s wife, Judith. The police say Savasta and an accomplice entered the general’s apartment disguised as plumbers and bound and gagged Mrs Do,zier before bundling her husband into a van for the trip to nearby Padua. She was unable to alert the police for three hours. Ten of the defendants are also charged with illegally carrying firearms. The son of a Rome policeman, Savasta, was already wanted in connection with I
previous Red Brigades attacks including the kidnap and murder of a businessman, Giuseppe Taliercio, last year. Judicial sources in Rome and northern Italy say Savasta, who is 27, has cooperated fully with authorities since his arrest, shedding light on several cases including the assassination of the former Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, in 1978. Savasta, and Giovanni Clucci,; aged 32, Emilia Libera, aged 27, another‘longsought member of the Brigades, and Efnanuela Frascella, aged 22„ daughter of a Padua doctor, were responsible for issuing the appeal to their comrades.
In an effort to encourage other would-be informants and defectors, Italy’s Lower House of Parliament last week approved a bill offering leniency and some protection to urban guerrillas who cooperated with the police and magistrates. The need for protection was underlined last year when the Brigades kidnapped and murdered the brother of Patrizio Peci, a former member who became a “superpentito” (supergrass, or major informer).
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Press, 9 March 1982, Page 8
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503Terrorists appeal to comrades to give up Press, 9 March 1982, Page 8
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