vhfmh

The Supreme Court must rule on the extradition of Cesare Battisti

AFP - Thirty years after fleeing Italy, the former left-wing activist Cesare Battisti whether it should be extradited to his country of origin who claims for murders committed during the "leaden years" or allowed to live in freedom in Brazil, following a further review Wednesday of his case by the Supreme Court of Brazil.

The nine judges of the highest court in Brazil have begun discussions to 2:40 p.m. local time (5:40 p.m. GMT).

They must decide on a request from Italy, which calls into question the decision of the Court, in 2009, leaving the then president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the ultimate decision on the extradition of Battisti.

On the last day in office, December 31, 2010, Lula had rejected the extradition of Battisti to Italy, believing that there might be a victim of political persecution.

Now aged 56, Battisti was convicted in absentia in 1993 by Italy to life imprisonment for four murders and attempted murders in the late 1970s, crimes he says he is innocent.

"He is very anxious waiting for his trial" and he continues to take anti-depressants, told the daily O Globo, one of his lawyers, Renata Saraiva, who often visited him in prison.

On the run for thirty years, Battisti was arrested in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 and jailed shortly afterwards in a maximum security prison near Brasilia pending a decision on his extradition.

Should the Supreme Court held that although the last word to the Head of State, Battisti "will not be extradited and could get out of jail tonight," he told AFP, lawyer Antonio Carlos Almeida Castro Former defender of a member of the Italian Red Brigades.

Battisti's lawyers have already filed an application for immediate release to be considered by the Court.

Otherwise, "unlikely" according to this lawyer, Cesare Battisti "will soon be extradited."

Lula's refusal to extradite Battisti had caused a diplomatic crisis between Brasilia and Rome to which the former president's decision "violated the sovereignty of Italy."

At that time, Rome had recalled its ambassador for consultations, a move reflecting the anger of the government and all politicians."I pledge to continue the battle for Battisti is delivered to the Italian justice", had then said the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The former activist turned author of detective fiction in France, where he found refuge from 1990 to 2004, has protested his innocence and claims to be "sure" he would présécuté and killed if returned to Italy.

To justify his position, President Lula had relied on an article of the extradition treaty saying it did not apply in cases of "reasonable suspicions that the person sought will suffer persecution and discrimination" .

Arrested in his country in 1979 when he campaigned in the small group of "armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC), Cesare Battisti was sentenced to twelve years in prison. He escaped in 1981 and then began a long lam in Mexico, France and Brazil.