The President of the Radical Party Emma Bonino and the member of the European Parliament Marco Taradash of the International Antiprohibitionist League were arrested today at 12.20 in New York (18.20 in Italy), charged with having distributed sterile syringes.

After having held a brief press conference in front of the New York City Town Hall, Emma Bonino and Marco Taradash started to hand out syringes to the policemen, to the journalists and to the administrative staff of the Town Hall. After having seized the syringes, the policemen handcuffed the two radical exponents and loaded them on board a prison van.

In New York it is not allowed to buy syringes in a pharmacy, unless with a medical prescription, and the minimum penalty for this offence is six months of prison.

Why did Taradash and Bonino commit this act of civil disobedience? They did it because of the alarming diffusion of AIDS in the city of New York, where 70% of the 250.000 heroin addicts are Hiv- positive, and where a person dies of AIDS every 10 minutes.

Note: Bonino and Taradash are in the United States these days to take part in the Drug Policy Foundation's Congress.