Neo-fascist held in isolation to await questioning - UPI Archives (original) (raw)

ROME -- Neo-fascist Stefano Delle Chiaie was held in isolation today, awaiting questioning about his alleged involvement in terrorist and subversive activities during nearly 17 years as a fugitive.

Delle Chiaie, 49, was returned to Rome in handcuffs from Caracas, Venezuela, aboard a special Italian air force jet Tuesday and was placed in an isolation cell in Rebibia Prison.

Authorities said they planned to question him about his activities of the past 17 years, which allegedly include involvement in subversive activities on three continents.

Bologna Judge Mario Antonacci adjourned the trial of defendants in the 1980 bombing of the Bologna railroad station to await Delle Chiaie's appearance in the dock. Delle Chiaie, one of the 20 defendants in the case, is charged with subversive association for terrorist purposes.

The Aug. 2, 1980, bombing killed 85 people and wounded 200, Europe's deadliest post-World War II terrorist attack.

Delle Chiaie also is charged in the Dec. 12, 1969, bombing of the Agricultural Bank in Piazza Fontana, Milan. That bombing, which killed 16 people and wounded 87, marked the start of post-war terrorism in Italy.

A court in Florence sentenced Delle Chiaie to life in prison in the 1967 killing of a judge but his conviction was reversed on appeal.

In 1978, he was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for helping Prince Junio Valerio Borghese plot a coup attempt in Italy in 1970. The plot failed.

Delle Chiaie also is linked to a failed coup in 1973 and to the outlawed Propaganda 2 Masonic Lodge, which allegedly sought to undermine the Italian democracy.

Delle Chiaie fled Italy on July 25, 1970. He was arrested Saturday in a drug raid in Caracas and turned over to Italian authorities without extradition proceedings because he had entered Venezuela on a false passport.

Authorities said he used at least 20 aliases during his years as a fugitive, first in Spain and then in Latin America.

A founder of the ultra-right National Vanguard movement, Delle Chiaie is suspected of training subversive groups in Spain, Angola and Latin America.

From 1980 to 1981 he worked as an intelligence adviser to the Bolivian Interior Ministry.