1975

February 28, Rome
Mikaeli Mantakas (Mikis), 23 years old, university student

The assassination takes place during the trial for the Primavalle fire, where exponents of the far left are accused of starting the fire which then killed two exponents of the right.
We report the words uttered by the Minister of the Interior Gui during the parliamentary questions following the murder. “The trial began in the judicial city of Rome on 24 February 1975. Instead of being considered a civil manifestation of justice aimed at establishing the truth and identifying those guilty of a serious crime, the celebration of such a delicate trial was taken , immediately as a pretext for senseless revenge and partisan speculation, with the rekindling of hatred and the push for new arrogance. This occurred mainly thanks to sectors of the far right who, with threatening propaganda and attempts to make it impossible for others who wanted to attend the trial by being present in the courtroom, aimed from the beginning to transform the hearings into a show of strength and intimidation. Hence the numerous minor incidents that occurred in the streets and squares adjacent to the judicial city and the initial clashes, especially with members of left-wing extra-parliamentary groups, as well as the increasingly heated controversies in the press. (…)
The guardians of order had also ensured careful supervision on 28 February, when however they began to be subjected to predetermined and completely gratuitous attacks by small organized groups of left-wing extra-parliamentarians, among whom members of the so-called “Via dei Volsci Collective”, which has repeatedly distinguished itself for actions of real criminal violence towards the police forces or towards public and private property. (…)
Among the episodes of crime that date back to this group, I will remember that on the morning of the 28th, while the third hearing of the trial was taking place, a public security vehicle containing two non-commissioned officers and two agents was hit by the throwing of incendiary bottles in Via Trionfale . The vehicle caught fire and only the prompt intervention of a public safety guard prevented the crew members, who were also hit with iron bars, from losing their lives. (…)
In the Piazzale Clodio area, the carabinieri and public security guards promptly reacted by dispersing the demonstrators and in some cases arresting the most vocal ones. Repelled from Piazzale Clodio, the same groups, with characteristic guerrilla tactics, suddenly headed towards the headquarters of the Italian Social Movement in Via OttaViano at around 1.30pm to attack it. On this occasion, the tragic episode of the killing of the young Greek student Michele Mantakas, a frequenter of the Social Movement headquarters in via Ottaviano, and the equally serious episode of the wounding of the young Fabio Rolli, a member of the Italian Social Movement, occurred. These crimes were committed with gunshots fired by members of the aforementioned ultra-left groups. It should be noted that Mantakas had been authorized to stay in Italy with subsequent permits, the last of which expired in August 1974. (…)
Of the killing of the Greek student and the wounding of the young Rolli, very serious evidence emerged against Fabrizio Panzieri, an activist of the “Communist Vanguard”, arrested armed with a pistol by a public security officer, as well as another young man, later identified for Alvaro Lojacono, an activist of “Potere operaio” who became untraceable after shooting the officer himself”.
Lojacono was indicated by three members of the MSI as one of the shooters: they recognized him in a photo published by the newspapers, but in the appeal process they declared themselves in doubt about that indication. Lojacono was accused of that murder together with Fabrizio Panzieri: the judges of first instance acquitted him
due to insufficient evidence, sentencing Panzieri to nine years. The Court of Assizes of Appeal instead pronounced a sentence of sixteen years for both defendants in 1980 (confirmed by the Supreme Court).
Despite the sentence pronounced by the appeal judges, Lojacono (who had also testified at the trial, while Panzieri was a fugitive) remained at liberty, because the appeal to the Supreme Court blocked the enforceability of the provision, and he became untraceable. After seeking refuge in various countries, he fled to Switzerland, a country he knew well and to which he was particularly attached. His mother has Swiss citizenship and, for this reason, he enjoys dual citizenship.
For the Via Fani massacre, the accusation that Judge Priore leveled against him in recent days, Lojacono was called into question by Valerio Morucci. At the appeal trial for the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro Morucci and Adriana Faranda they argued that the members of the commando who raped there were nine of them in Moro, but they didn’t name them. Morucci, however, clarified that three of the first degree convicts, namely Faranda, Lauro Azzolini and Luca Nicolotti, did not participate in that action: three of the terrorists in the commando would therefore not have been identified. Subsequently, at the Moro ter trial, Morucci however hinted that Alessio Casimirri and Alvaro Lojacono were in via Fani.