Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

PRIMA LINEA • 553suspects to give information to the security forces about the suspectsand their whereabouts. However, these statutes do not give the policeauthority to force defense lawyers or investigative reporters intorevealing confidential information. Once the IRA began using carbombs, these acts were then amended in 1987 to require victims ofcarjacking or auto theft to report the theft immediately lest the stolencar or truck be used for a car bombing. These acts also allowed thepolice to detain suspects for up to seven days for questioning in caseswhere there was a more probable cause than the mere “reasonablesuspicion” requirement of the Emergency Provisions Act. It alsoallowed British authorities to ban suspected individuals from theBritish mainland. In 2000 these acts were replaced with the morepermanent Terrorism Act of 2000. See also DIPLOCK COURTS;SUPERGRASS SYSTEM.PRIMA LINEA (PL). The Prima Linea (Front Line) was a group ofItalian anarchistic leftist terrorists active from November 1976 until1981, second only to the Red Brigades as a major domestic terroristthreat. Like the Red Brigades or the Red Army Faction, they rationalizedtheir terrorism in revolutionary leftist terms but appeared to pursueterrorist violence as an end in itself rather than as a strategy to achieverevolution. While they did not appear to have state sponsorship, thegroup did collaborate with Direct Action and the Red Brigades.In ideology and organization the PL greatly resembled the RedBrigades, perhaps because one of its leaders, Corrado Alunni, wasalso a leading Red Brigades figure. The PL differed from the RedBrigades in maintaining open contacts with the Italian left ratherthan going underground. Its initial act was an attack against the Fiatplant in Turin on 29 November 1976. Its first known assassinationwas of a moderate leftist politician of Milan, Enrico Pedenovi, whowas ambushed and shot by PL gunmen in Milan on 29 April 1976.By the end of 1978 the PL had carried out at least 25 operations. On29 January 1979 the PL murdered Milan Assistant Attorney GeneralEmilio Alessandrini. Like the Red Brigades, the PL also specializedin kneecapping, one of its victims being the Italian manager of theChemical Bank of New York in Milan, who was shot four times inthe legs on 11 May 1978, and 10 other victims being hostages seizedin the Turin School of Industrial Management on 11 December 1979.After 1980 the PL began concentrating more on assassinations, particularlyof judges and jurors who had convicted leftist terrorists.