The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR, "Armed Revolutionary Nuclei") was an Italian neofascist terrorist organization active from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso. An off-shoot of Terza Posizione, the group maintained close links with the Banda della Magliana criminal Roman organization, which provided such logistical support as lodging, false papers, weapons, and bombs to the NAR. In November 1981, it was discovered that the NAR hid weapons in the basements of the Health Ministry. The first trial against them sentenced 53 persons on May 2, 1985, on charges of terrorist activities.
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The NAR were directed by former RAI child actor Valerio Fioravanti, his brother Cristiano Fioravanti, Dario Pedretti, Francesca Mambro and Alessandro Alibrandi.
Other important members included: Luigi Ciavardini, Gilberto Cavallini, Stefano Soderini, Franco Anselmi, Giorgio Vale, Massimo Carminati, Claudio Bracci, Stefano Bracci, Mario Corsi detto "Marione", Stefano Tiraboschi, Lino Lai, Paolo Pizzonia, Patrizio Trochei, Walter Sordi, Marco Mario Massimi, Pasquale Belsito, Fiorenzo Trincanato, Andrea Vian.
In 1980, NAR member Giorgio Vale became the leader of Terza Posizione, which was used as a front for the NAR.
NAR members Giusva Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro have been sentenced as responsible for the 1980 bombing of the Bologna main train station which killed 85 people. It is however noteworthy that Fioravanti and Mambro, despite acknowledging their participation to a significant number of killings, always denied their implication in the bombing. Therefore, in spite of a definitive tribunal sentence, their involvement is still matter of debate. Stefano Delle Chiaie is also thought to have been the NAR architect of the Bologna massacre.
On November 25, 1981, Italian authorities discovered a weapons cache in the basements of the Health Ministry. According to the Magliana pentito Maurizio Abbatino, NAR member Massimo Carminati was the only one who could freely access the weapons cache. Massimo Carminati not only held close links with the Banda della Magliana, but also with SISMI secret agents, in particular General Pietro Musumeci and colonel Giuseppe Belmonte, a member of the Propaganda Due Masonic lodge.
On June 23, 1980, NAR members Gilberto Cavallini and Luigi Ciavardini (who was later sentenced to a 30-year prison term in 2007 for his role in the 1980 Bologna bombings)[1] assassinated magistrate Mario Amato. Amato had been made responsible for investigations into the radical right in Italy after the assassination of judge Vittorio Occorsio on July 10, 1976. The two NAR members were also responsible for the earlier slaying of Francesco Evangelista on May 28, 1980.[2]