Career
A former school teacher in the middle of the 1970s she joined a terrorist group named the Brigate Rosse. However she was not jailed because a verdict was not reached in time. In 1993 she left Italy to avoid arrest following her conviction for the killing of a policeman, various attempted murders and other minor offenses.
She moved to Paris where, thanks to the Mitterrand doctrine, she started a new life.
She was arrested by the French, but the government of Nicolas Sarkozy announced that Petrella would not be extradited to Italy on medical grounds.