The French court of appeals at Versailles is to give its verdict concerning Marina Petrella, a 54-year-old former militant of the Italian Red Brigades, later today. Petrella, arrested in France in 2007, is currently hospitalized in Paris’s St. Anne psychiatric hospital. She has been in a state of suicidal depression since the French government ordered her extradition to Italy in June. The public prosecutor has asked for her to be released under surveillance, citing health concerns.

What is Marina Petrella accused of?

Marina Petrella was convicted and sentenced to prison for life in 1992, for the 1981 murder of Sebastiano Vinci, an Italian police officer. In addition, Italian courts have accused her of abducting a magistrate, armed robbery and a series of other attacks.

From 1976 to 1982, Marina Petrella was a member of the Red Brigades, an Italian far-left terrorist group that conducted numerous attacks during the “years of lead”, a violent period that deeply scarred Italy’s history during the second half of the twentieth century.

Why is Marina Petrella in France?

Like many other left-wing militants of the time, Petrella benefited form the “Mitterrand doctrine”: former French president François Mitterrand, a socialist, decided not to extradite left-wing terrorist suspects hiding in France if they ceased all violent activity. This doctrine was denounced and overruled by the French authorities in 2002.

Marina Petrella arrived in France in 1993. She married a Frenchman and was employed as a social worker in the Paris area when she was arrested in August 2007. The French government signed her extradition decree on June 3rd.

What can be expected of today’s court decision?

Even if the Versailles court of appeals decides to free Marina Petrella, the current extradition proceedings will go on. French president Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to hand over the former militant to the Italian authorities, but in a letter to the Italian Prime Minister, Sivlio Berlusconi, he expressed his wish that she be pardoned by Rome.

Petrella, a mother-of-two, has turned to the French State Council in hopes that her extradition decree be overruled – a last resort which the Council is due to examine in September.