The trial began in January 1987; there were 20 defendants. For the first time since Fioravanti's arrest he and Mambro were reunited when they were placed together in the cage Italian courtrooms have for those accused of violent crimes. They pleaded guilty to responsibility for numerous murders, but denied they or their group carried out the Bologna massacre. The prosecution said that Fioravanti had admitted to crimes which demonstrated an indiscriminate ruthlessness, and that he had espoused an ideology that justified attacks similar to Bologna, as had Mambro.