Mandela was a 'terrorist,' says Italian official

VERONA, Italy, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela was a "terrorist," a member of an Italian political party known for racially charged statements, says.

Francesco Vartolo, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League, made the comments after Mandela's death was announced Thursday, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday.

''Finally the terrorist Mandela, the beast who thirsted for white blood and was transformed into a hero by global propaganda, will find himself before all the people that he had killed with bombs in churches or with tires on fire around the neck,'' Vartolo, a borough councilor in Verona, wrote on his Facebook page.

Vartolo's comments were condemned by Luca Zaia, a major Northern League official and governor of the Veneto region that includes Verona. He said the statement did not represent the party's views.

Another League official, Lombardy Gov. Roberto Maroni, said in a Twitter message: "Honor to the memory of one of humanity's greats."

Northern League Sen. Roberto Calderoli recently became the focus of a criminal investigation after he compared the country's first black cabinet minister, Cecile Kyenge, to an orangutan.