Piazza della Loggia, Toffaloni sentenced to 30 years: "He was the executor of the massacre". He will not go to prison: Switzerland has already denied extradition

The Juvenile Court of Brescia sentenced Marco Toffaloni to thirty years for massacre. According to the Brescia judges, he was one of the perpetrators of the Piazza della Loggia massacre of 28 May 1974. The first-degree conviction came after almost eight hours of council chamber. The defendant, now 67 years old and a Swiss citizen and not yet 17 at the time, was not present in the courtroom, nor was he ever present throughout the trial. The Swiss authorities have already made it known during the trial that they will not hand him over to Italy.

Toffaloni was believed to be one of the material authors of the massacre that resulted in 9 dead and 102 injured with a bomb hidden inside a rubbish bin during the demonstration called by the trade unions and the anti-fascist committee. The trial of Toffaloni's co-defendant Roberto Zorzi is underway before the Brescia Court of Assizes, presided over by Judge Roberto Spanò. The next hearing is set for 7 April.

"It is only the first step, of course, because now you have to wait for the other levels of judgement, wait especially for the motivations. However, for me, believe me, the main thing, apart from individual responsibilities, is that the truth of the context has come out'. This was stated by Silvio Bonfigli, the magistrate now heading the Cremona public prosecutor's office, who together with his colleague Bressanelli represented the prosecution in the trial against Toffaloni. "So it is an important step because this is the trial truth that is slowly but surely approaching the historical truth. Certainly,' added Bonfigli, 'if everyone had done their duty in August 1974, this would have been a solved case'.