A former leader of Italy’s Workers’ Power movement, Negri was arrested in 1979 and convicted by a court there of armed insurrection against the state.

He got an additional four-and-a-half-year term for bearing “moral responsibility” for a series of clashes between militants and police in Milan, northern Italy, between 1973 and 1977.

Elected as a deputy in 1983 for the Radical Party, he made use of his parliamentary immunity to leave Italy and take refuge in France.

There, he enjoyed the support of fellow left-wing intellectuals including Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, and worked as a university lecturer.

In 1997, he chose to return to Italy after 14 years in exile to give himself up to the authorities. Two years later, he was granted a limited parole before being finally released in 2003.

Negri remained politically active in support of workers’ movements, Revel told AFP.