Adriano Sofri

During the 1960s and 1970s, Sofri was the leader of the far-left militant organization called Lotta Continua ("Continuous Struggle"),[3][4] together with Giorgio Pietrostefani.

Despite the established fact that Calabresi wasn't even in the room at the moment of Pinelli's death, he became the target of an extensive left-wing media campaign, which accused him of manslaughter and lasted years.

16 later in July 1988, Leonardo Marino, an ex-activist of Lotta Continua who said that he was moved by religion and a sense of guilt, turned himself into the police and confessed to taking part in the assassination of Calabresi.

The Piazza Fontana bombing, Giuseppe Pinelli's death, Calabresi's assassination and their subsequent investigations and trials are remembered as some of the most important events during the Years of Lead.

[5] After 2 years of prison, in 1999 Sofri and Pietrostefani asked and obtained by the Supreme Court a temporary suspension of the sentence and a retrial.

This is an exceptional measure, quite unusual in the Italian justice system, and it was granted because of the complicated legal path and the high political pressure on the first trial at the time.

[7] Throughout all the proceedings there was a large opinion movement in favour of Sofri, made by relevant politicians, intellectuals and artists such as Dario Fo, Erri De Luca, Carlo Ginzburg, Giuliano Ferrara, Gad Lerner, Luigi Ciotti,[8] Walter Veltroni, Piero Fassino, judge Ferdinando Imposimato,[9][10] Marco Pannella.

After the defeat of Silvio Berlusconi at the April 2006 election, the new government's Justice Minister Clemente Mastella announced that Sofri could be pardoned.

The Justice Minister commented: "The truth is that 34 years after the events Sofri is a very sick person to whom one can offer a spontaneously humane gesture".