| Bologna massacre | |
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Rescue teams making their way through the rubble. |
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| Location | Central Station of Bologna |
| Date | 2 August 1980 10:25 AM |
| Attack type | Bomb attack |
| Deaths | 85 people killed and more than 200 wounded |
| Perpetrator(s) | Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro, members of the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari |
The Bologna massacre (Italian: Strage di Bologna) was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari. Suspicions of an Italian secret service's involvement has emerged shortly after due to the explosives used for the bomb and the political climate in which the massacre happened, but it has never been proved.
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At 10:25 a.m., a time-bomb contained in an unattended suitcase detonated inside an air-conditioned waiting room, which, the month being August (and with air conditioning being uncommon in Italy at the time), was crammed full of people. The bomb was made of TNT, T4 and a "Compound B", also known as Composition B. The explosion destroyed most of the main building and hit the Ancona–Chiasso train that was waiting at the first platform. The blast was heard for miles. The roof of the waiting room collapsed onto the passengers, which greatly increased the total number killed in the terrorist attack.
On that summer Saturday the station was full of tourists and the city was unprepared for such a massive incident. There were not enough ambulances, so buses and taxis were used to transport wounded victims to hospitals.
The attack was recorded as the worst atrocity in Italy since World War II.[1]
The next day, police investigators found metal fragments and scraps of plastics near the source of the explosion.[2] The Italian Government led by Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga first assumed the explosion to have been caused by an accident, but within a short time the NAR were shown to be responsible for the terrorist attack. Later, in a special session to the Senate, Cossiga supported the theory that neofascists were behind the attack, "unlike leftist terrorism, which strikes at the heart of the state through its representatives, black terrorism prefers the massacre because it promotes panic and impulsive reactions."[3][4]
A long, troubled and controversial court case and political issue ensued. The relatives of the victims formed an association (Associazione dei familiari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980) to raise and maintain civil awareness about the case.
General Pietro Musumeci, n°2 of SISMI and revealed in 1981 to be a member of Propaganda Due (P2), was charged with having created falsified evidence to charge Roberto Fiore and Gabriele Andinolfi, two leaders of Terza Posizione who had fled in exile to London, of the bombing.[5] Both Terza Posizione leaders claimed that Musumeci was trying to divert attention from Licio Gelli, head of P2.[5]
A trial involving 20 suspects was initiated in 1987.[6]
In July 1988, four neo-fascists received life terms for the bombing: Valerio Fioravanti (23 at the time of the blast), his wife Francesca Mambro (born in 1960), Massimiliano Fachini and Sergio Picciafuoco. They also received sentences for belonging to an armed group, as well as Paolo Signorelli and Roberto Rinani, who were absolved of the charge for carrying out the attack.[7] Licio Gelli, leader of the masonic P2 lodge, as well as three others, Francesco Pazienza, Pietro Musumeci and Giuseppe Belmonte, received sentences for slandering the investigation.[7] Stefano Delle Chiaie, who was arrested in and extradited from Venezuela a year earlier, was absolved from the charge of subversive association.[8][9]
Two years later, in July 1990, an appeals court cancelled the convictions of the defendants Valerio Fioravanti; his wife, Francesca Mambro; Massimiliano Fachini; and Sergio Picciafuoco, as well as the slander convictions of Gelli and Pazienza.[10] A retrial was ordered in October 1993.[11]
On 23 November 1995, the Court of Cassation (Corte di Cassazione) issued the final sentence:
In April 1998, the former fascist Francesca Mambro was authorized to leave her prison during the day, and carried out activities against the death penalty in the headquarters of the Radical Party.[12]
To date those responsible for the attack and their political motives remain unknown. Some suspected that the Operation Gladio network had been at least partially involved.[13]
In 2004, Luigi Ciavardini, who had been a 17-year-old NAR member associated closely with the Terza Posizione at the time of the Bologna massacre, received a 30-year prison sentence for his role in the attack, which was upheld by the Court of Cassation in April 2007.[14] Freed by the Italian justice until the sentence of the Court of the Cassation, Ciavardini had been imprisoned in October 2006, after being arrested following the armed robbery of the Banca Unicredito di Roma on 15 September 2005.[15][16] Ciavardini was also charged with the assassination of Francesco Evangelista on 28 May 1980, and the assassination of judge Mario Amato in June 1980.[16]
Following the 2006 arrest of former Argentine Triple A member Rodolfo Almirón, Spanish lawyer José Angel Pérez Nievas declared that it was "probable that Almirón participated — along with Stefano Delle Chiaie and Augusto Cauchi — in the 1980 bombing in Bologna's train station." But the Argentine Supreme Court refused in 1998 to extradite Canchi to Italy.[17]
In 2008, former President Francesco Cossiga alleged that PLO-affiliated terrorists from George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were responsible for the bombing,[18] however the PFLP has denied responsibility.[19]
The municipality of Bologna together with the Associazione tra i familiari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980 hold an annual international composition competition, which culminates with a concert in the town's main square, Piazza Maggiore annually on 2 August, which is also the day designated as a memorial day for all terrorist massacres.
The area of the station where the bomb detonated has been reconstructed but the flooring has been left unrestored and a deep crack in the main wall has been left as a memorial to the attack. A station clock is also set at 10:25, the exact time of the explosion.
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