(Adnkronos) – Nicaragua’s leftwing government has severed diplomatic relations with Italy after foreign minister Antonio Tajani issued a fresh request for the extradition of former Red Brigade member and convicted killer Alessio Casimirri and called Managua “extremist”.
“The Nicaraguan government has notified the Italian government of its intention to sever diplomatic relations with Italy,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Addressing the conservative ‘Libertas’ forum in Madrid on Wednesday, Tajani said it was “unacceptable” that Nicaragua continued to give asylum to Casimirri, who was handed multiple life terms in absentia for the March 1978 murders in Rome of then-premier Aldo Moro’s security detail, his abduction by the far-left terror group and assassination after 55 days in captivity. Casimirri was also convicted of the murder in October 1978 of Italian judge, Girolamo Tartaglione.
“We are here today in Madrid with our Latin American brothers to reaffirm the Italian government’s firm stance in favour of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law throughout Latin America,” Tajani said.
“I want to be clear. We do not share any part of the vision held by extremist governments such as Nicaragua’s,” Tajani continued.
Nicaragua “offers protection to a dangerous (far-left) Red Brigades terrorist like Alessio Casimirri, who killed Aldo Moro, one of Italy’s most prominent Christian Democrat politicians,” Tajani went on.
“Italy will continue to demand that Casimirri face Italian justice for the crimes of which he has been found guilty, as has already been requested in a resolution by the European Parliament,” Tajani said, cited by the foreign ministry statement.
