French court frees ex-Red Brigader

PARIS, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A French appeals court ruled Tuesday that a former member of the Red Brigades in Italy must be allowed to live at home while she gets medical treatment.

The appeals court said that Marina Petrella, 54, would have to report daily to police in Argenteuil, a Paris suburb where she lives, and would not be allowed to leave France, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. She is now being treated in a Paris hospital for depression and physical problems after a prison hunger strike.

Petrella had been living in France for 15 years when she was arrested last year. She was convicted in Italy in 1992 of killing a police officer more than a decade earlier.

About 100 former members of the Red Brigades and other violent left-wing groups in Italy are believed to be living in France. When the late Francois Mitterand was president, the French government rejected Italian extradition requests, a policy changed by Jacques Chirac and Nicholas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy last month promised the Italian government that France would honor its extradition request. But he also urged Italy to pardon Petrella on grounds of poor health.