Lioce is to be tried for murder

Five suspects will be tried for the murder of a Labour ministry consultant shot dead in 1999.

They include Nadia Lioce, already in jail for murdering a police officer.

The ultra-left Red Brigades terrorised Italy during the 1970s and 80s, with a wave of attacks and bombings blamed for killing 415 people.

Most of their leaders were eventually arrested and sentenced to long prison terms.

Shoot-out

But the group re-emerged with the murder of consultant Massimo d'Antona in 1999.

He was killed at a time when Italy was introducing new reforms aimed at creating greater flexibility in the labour market.

Three years later, a second labour consultant, Marco Biagi, was gunned down in Bologna.

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says investigators believe they have now broken the new Red Brigades organisation, following evidence retrieved from a computer belonging to Lioce, one of the alleged leaders of the group.

She was arrested after a shoot-out last year on a train in Tuscany in which a policeman and another Red Brigades suspect were killed.

Target lists

Following further arrests, she and 14 other people will go on trial in February facing charges ranging from murder to armed robbery.

Two women who have turned state's witness and been guaranteed leniency will go on trial separately in January.

Meanwhile judicial sources revealed that computer hardware belonging to one of the two state's witnesses included files on top figures including Premier Silvio Berlusconi and President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

It is thought the information may have been meant for potential assassination attempts, Italian press reported on Tuesday.