This morning in Rome the massacre of via Fani was commemorated where, on March 16, 1978, three police officers and two carabinieri who made up the escort of the honorable Aldo Moro, president of the Christian Democrats, were killed. The politician, on that occasion, was kidnapped by members of the terrorist organization Brigate Rosse.
During the ceremony, an inter-force picket, made up of personnel from the State Police, the Carabinieri and the Finance Police, paid tribute to the deputy brigadier of public security Francesco Zizzi, to the public security guards Raffaele Iozzino and Giulio Rivera, to the major marshal of the carabinieri Oreste Leonardi and the constable of the carabinieri Domenico Ricci.
Laurel wreaths were placed on the site of the massacre by the President of the Republic, other constitutional bodies of the state and local authorities.
Also the head of the Police Lamberto Giannini and the commander general of the Carabinieri Teo Luzi, present at the ceremony, laid two crowns in memory of the policemen and carabinieri killed in the terrorist attack.
The 3 young policemen, on February 16, 1979 were awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Valor, and their names are also engraved in the small tombstones of the Memorial present at the Higher Police School.
History
Rome, 9 am on 16 March 1978. In via Mario Fani, the car with Aldo Moro on board and that of the escort were blocked at the intersection with via Stresa by a commando of the Red Brigades. The terrorists immediately opened fire, and in a few seconds killed the five men in the escort and kidnapped Moro, the Christian Democratic statesman who was later killed after 55 days in captivity.
At the site of the massacre, the corpse of the public security guard Giulio Rivera and the dying body of the deputy police sergeant Francesco Zizzi were found inside an Alfa Romeo Alfetta; in the Fiat 130, on which Moro was traveling and which preceded the Alfetta, the corpses of the Carabinieri officer Domenico Ricci and of the Carabinieri Marshal Oreste Leonardi; on the ground, next to the car, the public security guard Raffaele Iozzino.
At 9.03 am an anonymous phone call to 113 informed of a shooting with numerous gunshots that exploded in via Fani.