Italian police on Wednesday arrested 24 alleged separatists for terrorism after thwarting a plan to take over St Mark's Square in Venice armed with guns and a rudimentary "tank" made from a digger.
Police said they had arrested activists from a group called "The Alliance" on charges of "terrorism conspiracy and subversion of the democratic order," which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The underground group, made up of radical separatists from the Lombardy, Sardinia and Veneto regions, had been planning to "liberate" the iconic Venetian piazza using weapons from the Albanian mafia and set up a new independent government, police said.
They were planning an attack "by hundreds of people, some of them armed" and "an insurrection from the inhabitants of northern Italy most affected by the economic crisis," law enforcers said in a statement.
"The tank was built to be used for a spectacular action on St Mark's Square," police said.
The plan comes after more than two million residents of Venice and its surrounding region last month voted overwhelmingly in favour of breaking away from the rest of the country and forming their own state.
The online poll, although not legally binding and open to manipulation, showed the strenth of separatist feeling in Italy's northern regions.
link.
No comments:
Post a Comment