'Maximum attention' on anarchist protests - police chief

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 30 - Italy's Chief of Police Lamberto Giannini on Monday promised that the authorities were giving top priority to a wave of violent actions staged by extremist groups to protest against the plight of jailed anarchist leader Alfredo Cospito.
    The 55-year-old is in poor health after being on hunger striker for over 100 days to protest against being held under the tough 41 bis jail regime usually reserved for mafia bosses.
    Italian diplomatic offices in Berlin and Barcelona were subjected to vandalism last week and anarchist groups were engaged in violent clashes with police in the Trastevere district of Rome on Saturday night.
    A policeman was injured in those clashes and 41 people have been cited over them.
    Anarchists are also thought to have been behind a Molotov cocktail attack on a Rome police station at the weekend.
    These are only the latest in a series of such acts in Italy and abroad linked to anarchists in recent months.
    "This violence and these protests are being repeated and the situation will have to be examined with the maximum attention," said Giannini, commenting on the Rome clashes.
    "We are investigating to find out who is responsible.
    "Over 40 people have been identified and reported to the judicial authorities".
    The Cospito case and the related protests are set to be among the issues addressed at a meeting of Premier Giorgia Meloni's cabinet later on Monday.
    On Sunday Meloni's office put out a statement saying the government would not be intimidated by the protests calling for Cospito to be switched to a softer jail regime.
    "The State does not make pacts with threat-makers," a statement said.
    Cospito is serving 20 years for a bomb attack on a Carabinieri police training academy at Fossano near Cuneo in Piedmont in 2006 and a further 10 years and eight months for kneecapping Ansaldo Nucleare Managing Director Roberto Adinolfi in Genoa in 2012. (ANSA).