The four women and three men, aged between 24 and 41, were already known to police for allegedly illegal protest actions, police said.

They are from Verona, Padua, Rome, Milan and Trieste.

Police confiscated various protest materials including glue and black and orange powder, which the protesters planned to use after buying tickets in various seating areas close to the court.

UG has staged a series of controversial headline-grabbing protests in the last two years, including last month pouring red liquid over themselves outside Florence Cathedral, and last August gluing themselves to the iconic Laocoon statue group in the Vatican Museums.

In May this year, a protest at the Giro d’Italia by three UG members was thwarted when the trio were dragged away from the road at Meolo near Venice before they could stop a breakaway group of four riders from racing past.

Earlier that month UG staged another act of civil disobedience to highlight the need to tackle the climate crisis, when two protestors covered themselves in mud outside the Senate in Rome.

Three UG members are currently on trial in Rome for spraying easy-to-wash-off paint over the facade of the Senate in January.

ANSA