Rome prosecutors to interview retired cop in Moro murder

Investigation of killing of statements in 1978 rekindled

(ANSA) - Rome, March 24 - Rome's public prosecutor said Monday that he will interview Enrico Rossi, a retired police inspector involved in the investigation of the 1978 kidnapping and assassination of statesman Aldo Moro. Allegations that intelligence agents may have been involved in the case, including possibilities that had not been fully investigated before, have come to light, ANSA has learned. Red Brigades terrorists kidnapped Moro on March 16, 1978 and killed him 55 days later, on May 9, 1978.

It has previously been alleged that the Italian secret services knew where Moro was being held and were tapping his captors' phones from the floor above, yet authorities failed to try to save Moro. Left- and right-wing extremist violence known as the "years of lead" marked the 1970s and 1980s in Italy, including the kidnapping of former premier Moro by members of the Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades.

His body was found between the Christian Democrat and Communist Party headquarters 55 days later. Since his death, theories have been rife on the possibility of the terrorists being infiltrated and manipulated by politicians and secret services working to keep the Italian Communist Party out of power and take revenge for Moro's overtures to them. The full complement and identities of all the terrorists who took part in the attack on Moro have never been satisfactorily established. The last probe into the Moro case was shelved in 2008.