Swiss political activist Giorgio Bellini is dead
Published: Monday, Dec 2nd 2024, 20:50
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Swiss political activist Giorgio Bellini died last Saturday in Lugano at the age of 79. "It is with sadness that we announce the sudden death of Giorgio", Bellini's family wrote in an obituary in the "Corriere del Ticino".
Born in Bellinzona in 1945, Bellini became nationally known in the 1980s due to suspicions of collaboration with the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos (Ilich Ramirez Sanchez) and the disruption of the SRF Tagesschau main edition in May 1981 by his supporters.
Bellini was in extradition custody in Germany at the time because he was suspected of collaborating with Carlos - who had carried out numerous attacks in Western Europe and various Arab countries. Five supporters of the Ticino native forced their way into the SRF television studio in Zurich and stood next to the then Tagesschau presenter Léon Huber with the poster "Freedom and sunshine for Giorgio Bellini". In 2000, a case brought against Bellini by the Office of the Attorney General was dropped due to a lack of evidence.
According to his own statements, Bellini and other activists also destroyed the information pavilion of the nuclear power plant in Kaiseraugst AG with the help of explosives in 1979. Between 1974 and 1984, he claims to have been involved in over 40 other attacks, including on the nuclear power plants in Leibstadt AG and Gösgen SO. In 2021, long after the statute of limitations had expired, Bellini confessed to the attack on the Kaiseraugst site in the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" newspaper.
As an autodidact, Bellini published various works. Among other things, he wrote the Inventory of Historical Roads in Switzerland (IVS) for the University of Bern. Most recently, Bellini ran a village store in the Gandria district of Lugano for many years.
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