Italian prosecutors on Friday charged12 mostly far-right militants for making Fascist salutes at the commemoration earlier this week of the April 16, 1973 leftistmilitant Primavalle Massacre arson attack that killed two sonsof a neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) local leader in the Rome neighborhood.
In the fire, the eight-year-old and 22-year-old sons of MSIPrimavalle secretary Mario Mattei, Stefano and Virgilio, were killed.
The suspects are, for the most part, militants of extremeright-wing political formations in Rome, including formeractivists, well-known militants and new recruits of neoFascistgroup Forza Nuova and its youth offshoot Lotta Studentesca(Student Struggle), as well as a top ultra of the Lazio footballteam.
In addition to those charged, Rome Digos special branch police identified another 15 people, all linked to radical right-wing circles.
The Constitutional Court clarified earlier this week that makingFascist salutes was against the law even if they were "merely commemorative", reversing the interpretation of a previous ruling.
Premier Giorgia Meloni said on the 50th anniversary of the Primavalle Massacre last April that it was one of the darkest pages in Italian history.
"On 16 April fifty years ago Italy and Rome experienced one of the darkest pages of national history", said Meloni in a message to the president of the Fratelli Mattei Association, GiampaoloMattei.
"What we can do today is to keep the memory of what happened alive, to avoid the danger of relapses and lead Italy and ourpeople towards a full and true national pacification," addedMeloni, whose conservative Brothers of Italy (FdI) party has itshistorical roots in the MSI and features a Mussolini tricolor flame in its logo, although the prime minister has repeatedly condemned Fascism and its "odious" laws against the Jews.
Fascist and anti-fascist militants clashed regularly in Italian streets during the 1970s and there were deaths on both sides.
The late 1960s to late 1980s also saw many deaths in Italy's Years of Lead of rightist and leftist political terrorism.
photo: Victims Virgilio (R) and Stefano Mattei