Mitterrand doctrine


The Mitterrand doctrine is a policy established in 1985 by French President François Mitterrand, of the Socialist Party, concerning Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France: those convicted for violent acts in Italy, excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead", would not be extradited to Italy.
The Mitterrand Doctrine was softened in 2002, under the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin during the presidency of Jacques Chirac, when was extradited from France. However, it continued to remain in effect, with the extradition of 10 far-left terrorists from France to Italy blocked by the French Court of Cassation in 2023.

Establishment

Mitterrand defined his doctrine during a speech at the Palais des sports in Rennes on February 1, 1985. Mitterrand excluded active terrorists from the protection. On 21 April 1985, at the 65th Congress of the Human Rights League, he declared that Italian criminals who had broken with their violent past and had fled to France would be protected from extradition to Italy:
"Italian refugees who took part in terrorist action before 1981 have broken links with the infernal machine in which they participated, have begun a second phase of their lives, have integrated into French society I told the Italian government that they were safe from any sanction by the means of extradition".

The policy statement was followed by French justice when it came to the extradition of far-left Italian terrorists or activists. According to a 2007 article by the Corriere della Sera, Mitterrand was convinced by Abbé Pierre to protect those persons. According to Cesare Battisti's lawyers, Mitterrand had given his word in consultation with the Italian prime minister, the fellow socialist Bettino Craxi.

In practice

The commitment long took the place of general policy of extradition of activists and Italian terrorists until it ceased to be in force after the extradition of Paolo Persichetti in 2002, a former member of the Red Brigades, which was approved by the Raffarin government. The Cesare Battisti case, in particular, has provoked debate about the interpretation of the doctrine.
Opponents of the doctrine point out that what a president can say during his tenure is not a source of law and so the doctrine has no legal value. Proponents point out that it was nevertheless consistently applied until 2002 and consider that the former president had committed the country by his words.
Its supporters, along with some personalities of the Socialist Party, are opposed to noncompliance by the right in power with the Mitterrand doctrine.
The doctrine has been strongly criticized by the Italian Association of Victims of Terrorism, which in 2008 expressed particular
French President Jacques Chirac said that he would not oppose the extradition of persons wanted by the Italian courts.

Continuation

The Mitterrand doctrine was based on the supposed superiority of French law and its alleged greater adherence to European standards and principles concerning the protection of human rights, especially with regard to in absentia trials. Italy at the time did not guarantee a second trial after an in absentia trial, which meant that convicted people extradited to Italy might never be able to defend themselves in person. By comparison, France allowed a second trial through the process of purgation in the absence.
However, in 2001 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the French purgation in the absence process also violated Article 6 of the European Convention, because the person had no lawyer defending them at the first in absentia trial. In response, in 2004 France amended its procedure for in absentia trials to allow for defence by a lawyer. The current in absentia procedure is defined as par défaut and allows for the defence by a lawyer.
In 2002, France extradited Paolo Persichetti, an ex-member of the communist terrorist group Red Brigades who was teaching sociology at the university, in breach of the Mitterrand doctrine. However, in 1998, Bordeaux's appeal court had judged that Sergio Tornaghi could not be extradited to Italy on the grounds that Italian procedure would not organise a second trial after the first trial in absentia. The extraditions in the 2000s decade involved not only members of the Red Brigades but also other leftist activists who had fled to France and were being sought by Italian justice. They included Antonio Negri, who eventually chose to return to Italy and surrender to Italian authorities.
In 2004, French judicial officials authorised the extradition of Cesare Battisti. In 2005 the Conseil d'État confirmed the extradition and softening the Mitterrand doctrine. Nonetheless, Battisti had already fled to Mexico and subsequently to Brazil, where he lived as fugitive for the following 14 years. In 2018, when Brazil revoked his protection, he fled again to Bolivia and unsuccessfully sought asylum. He was arrested and extradited to Italy to expiate his sentence of life imprisonment for four murders.
In 2005, Gilles Martinet, an old socialist intellectual and former ambassador to Italy, wrote in the preface to a book that was dedicated to the Battisti case, "Not being able to make a revolution in our country, we continue to dream of it elsewhere. It continues to exist the need to prove ourselves that we are always on the left and that we have not departed from the ideal".
In 2021, 10 far-left Italian terrorists in France were arrested, with plans made to extradite them to Italy. The terrorists facing extradition were convicted of acts including murders and kidnappings. French authorities stated that their extradition would fall in line with the Mitterrand doctrine, as it did not necessarily apply to violent criminals. However, France's Court of Cassation rejected the extradition attempt in 2023, allowing the 10 terrorists to remain within France.
As of 2021, Italy continued to seek the extradition of roughly 200 people residing in France.
The list of Italians who benefited from the Mitterrand doctrine include:

Reasons

The Mitterrand doctrine was supported by French intellectuals on the alleged nonconformity of Italian legislation with European standards and, in the 21st century, the age of the fugitives.
The French President opposed aspects of the anti-terrorist laws passed in Italy during the 1970s and the 1980s that created the status of collaboratore di giustizia", similar to the crown witness legislation in the United Kingdom and the Witness Protection Program in the United States in which people charged with crimes may become witnesses for the state and possibly receive reduced sentences and protection.
Italian legislation also provided that if a defendant can conduct his defence via his lawyers, trials held in absentia did not need to be repeated if he was eventually apprehended. The Italian in absentia procedure was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights.

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