Italy’s government has increased security at its diplomatic missions around the world in response to “a crescendo of terrorist attacks” by an informal anarchist network acting in solidarity with a jailed Italian militant, Italy’s foreign minister said on Tuesday. Foreign.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani cited nearly a dozen attacks since late November, ranging from vandalism to explosive devices that have damaged Italian diplomatic targets in Argentina, Bolivia, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. No injuries have been reported.
“It is obvious that there is an international solidarity (among the anarchists) and therefore an attack is being carried out against Italy, against Italian institutions all over the world,” Tajani said, adding that security was being increased. at all Italian embassies and consulates. as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tajani said they believe the network includes both Italians and anarchists from other countries acting in tandem. He referred to the graffiti scrawled in Catalan on the building that houses the Italian Consulate in Barcelona.
The most serious of the attacks was the firebombing of two cars at the residence of an Italian diplomat in Athens in early December: one car was set on fire, and Tajani said only the failure of the second bomb targeting a car inside the garage from the residence and near a gas line avoided worse consequences.
The attacks and a series of protests, including one planned for Tuesday in Madrid, are in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, who has been on a hunger strike since October to protest a strict prison regime reserved for terrorists and gangsters. The 55-year-old militant is serving a 10-year sentence for shooting a state-owned energy executive in the leg and 20 years for a series of dynamite attacks in Italy.
Last spring, a Turin appeals court toughened his prison conditions to include solitary confinement except for one hour a day and a strict limit on family visits. The regime is imposed on prisoners who are considered to pose a danger even from inside the prison.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the fact of the attacks only reinforces the regime’s need for Cospito.
Cospito’s lawyers are currently appealing the strict conditions.
Meanwhile, Cospito was transferred from Sardinia to a prison south of Milan, which Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said was better equipped to deal with the health challenges of the hunger strike.
In Italy, anarchists set fire to cars belonging to the TIM telecommunications company on Monday, scribbling slogans denouncing Cospito’s treatment nearby. This weekend, a small group of his supporters clashed with police in Rome, throwing two incendiary devices into the parking lot of a police station in the capital. Nobody was hurt.