Italy

Ex Italian PM Amato says Ustica tragedy was French attempt to assassinate Gaddafi

cde.news desk 3 September 2023, 07:00 · 2 min read

epaselect epa08511775 The reconstructed DC9 Itavia inside of the Ustica Massacre Museum during an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the Ustica massacre, in Bologna, Italy, 27 June 2020. On 27 June 1980, Itavia Flight 870 en route from Bologna to Palermo crashed into the sea near the island of Ustica killing 81 people on board. After decades of investigations, Italy's top criminal court ruled that the flight was brought down by a missile, but the perpetrators are still missing. EPA-EFE/Max Cavallari

Ex-premier Giuliano Amato has said that a French missile was behind the mysterious 1980 Ustica plane crash that left 81 people dead.

Amato said the Dc9 Bologna-Palermo flight operated by the now-defunct Itavia airline that crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between the islands of Ponza and Ustica on June 27, 1980, was hit in an attempt to assassinate late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“A plan was hatched to hit the aeroplane that Gaddafi was travelling on,” Amato told Saturday’s edition of daily newspaper La Repubblica.

“But the Libyan leader evaded the trap because he was warned by (late Italian Socialist Party leader and ex-premier Bettino) Craxi.

“Now the Elysee Palace can wash off the dishonour that weighs on (the conscience of) Paris”.

Daria Bonfietti, the president of the association of relatives of victims of the disaster, welcomed the revelation.

“These words are important and this is a correct reconstruction of everything that is in the documents (regarding the case), which we have known for years,” Bonfietti said.

The crash, which claimed the lives of 13 children, has been the object of numerous investigations, legal actions and accusations, including claims of conspiracy.

Premier Giorgia Meloni called on ex-premier Giuliano Amato to come forward with any evidence he has after he said that a French missile caused the mysterious 1980 Ustica plane crash that left 81 people dead.

“Giuliano Amato’s important words about Ustica deserve attention,” Meloni said.

“But Amato specifies that those words are the fruit of personal deductions.

“I ask Amato to know if, in addition to the deductions, he is in possession of elements that make it possible to go back (and re-assess) the conclusions reached by the judiciary and parliament, and make them available so that the government can take any possible steps forward resulting from them”.

Meloni added that no documents regarding the Ustica disaster stemming from criminal investigations and the work of parliamentary commissions of inquiry were classified.