Raffaele Ventura: still 14 years to serve for the 1977 Custra murder
The appeals court has ruled that the sentence has not been extinguished by limitation for the 76-year-old former member of the Formazioni comuniste combattenti. Ventura has lived in France for decades.
Sentence overturned: limitation period resumes
Raffaele Ventura, 76, a former member of the Formazioni comuniste combattenti, must serve the remaining 14 years of his sentence for moral complicity in the 1977 murder of Vice-Brigadier Antonio Custra in Milan. This was ruled by the Court of Assise of Appeal, overturning a previous order from 2024 that had declared the sentence extinguished by the statute of limitations. The decision follows a referral judgment by the Court of Cassation on an appeal by the General Prosecutor, and adopts the position of Chief Prosecutor Francesca Nanni.
According to ilpost.it, the crucial point is a three-hour stopover at a Paris police station on 17 July 2017. The Chief Prosecutor argued before the Court on 18 September that this provisional arrest—executed pursuant to an Italian European arrest warrant—interrupted the statute of limitations for the sentence and restarted it from that moment. Judges Nasi and Centonze agreed with this interpretation, holding that the arrest "was duly compiled" and that Ventura was "informed" that the warrant had been issued also for the Custra conviction, which became final in 1997.
Ventura's defence, represented by lawyer Davide Steccanella, contests the Court's reasoning. The lawyer has anticipated an appeal to the Court of Cassation, highlighting how a stopover of a few hours at a police station without appearance before a judge—and without any explicit reference to the murder offence—cannot constitute "commencement of execution of the sentence". According to Steccanella, the European arrest warrant indicated convictions for offences committed up to 1976, therefore prior to the May 1977 Custra murder.
Ventura has lived in France for decades under the Mitterrand doctrine, which historically granted protection to former Italian terrorists. In 2021 he was among ten former terrorists who were supposed to return to Italy following an agreement between the two countries to serve their sentences, but French judges rejected the extradition requests. In the meantime he remains free and lives on French territory, awaiting the Court of Cassation's ruling.
Source: Google News IT — Crime (it)