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| - French authorities on Thursday released nine suspected former members of Italian far-left militant groups while decades-old extradition requests from Rome are examined. Two of the suspects had surrendered to French police on Thursday, a day after seven others were arrested after Paris reversed course on the longstanding Italian extradition requests. The nine, all in their 70s or 60s, all appeared individually before the court of appeal in Paris accompanied by lawyers, judicial sources said. They were released under strict terms of judicial control, meaning they cannot leave France, have handed over their ID documents and must regularly report to the authorities, prosecutors said. The validity of the extradition requests against them will now be examined. A first hearing should take place on Wednesday but the process should take a minimum of several months. Seven suspects, some alleged to have belonged to the notorious Red Brigades, were arrested in France on Wednesday. Two more -- Luigi Bergamin and Raffaele Ventura -- handed themselves in on Thursday. A tenth man -- Maurizio Di Marzio -- is still on the run. All had been convicted in Italy of committing acts of terror in the 1970s and 1980s. French police rounded up the suspects on the orders of President Emmanuel Macron in a gesture designed to resolve a long-standing source of tension with Rome. France has long served as a haven for Red Brigades figures from the 1970s and 80s under a policy set by former French leader Francois Mitterrand. The so-called "Mitterrand Doctrine", adopted in 1985, offered asylum to the extremists providing they renounced violence and were not wanted in Italy for murder or other "blood crimes". Ultra-leftist groups like the Red Brigades sowed chaos during the period in Italy known as the Years of Lead -- named after the number of bullets fired -- from the late 1960s to mid-1980s. The Red Brigades, the most notorious, were responsible for kidnappings and murders, including of former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978. Bergamin, meanwhile, belonged to the Armed Proletarians for Communism group, founded in the mid-70s and disbanded a few years later. Ventura was active in the Communist Combatant Formations, also active in the 70s. bl-gd-jh-sjw/ach
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