Italian Justice Minister Andrea
Orlando said Wednesday that his department is ready to request
custody of convicted terrorist Cesare Battisti as soon as he is
expelled from Brazil.
"The (justice) ministry has activated all diplomatic
channels," Orlando said in an interview with television program
Porta a Porta.
"We will evaluate the final judgment of the Brazilian
authorities," added Orlando.
On Tuesday, Brazilian media reported Battisti was to be
expelled but it was not clear to where he would be sent.
A former Italian left-wing terrorist who had been given
asylum in Brazil, Battisti 60, had been sentenced to life in
prison in Italy for the murder of four people in the 1970s.
At that time, he was part of an extremist left-wing group
during the so-called Years of Lead of political violence.
He has denied the murder charges.
"We've been informed of the decision but there isn't a
date yet," Battisti's lawyer, Igor Sant'Anna Tamasauskas, was
quoted as saying by the Estadao website on Tuesday.
Battisti was arrested in Brazil in April 2007, some five
years after he had fled to that country with the help of false
documents to avoid extradition to Italy from France after the
end of the Mitterrand doctrine which gave sanctuary to
fugitive leftist guerrillas.
He had lived in France for 15 years and become a
successful writer of crime novels.
In January 2009 the Brazilian justice ministry granted
Battisti political asylum on the grounds that he would face
"political persecution" in Italy.
Then in one of his last acts in office, outgoing Brazilian
president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva declined Rome's request to
extradite Battisti in December 2010, sparking outrage in Italy.
Battisti's time in Brazil looks set to end now though, as
Brasilia Federal Judge Adverci Rates Mendes de Abreu has
reportedly withdrawn his residence permit, while at the same
time not overruling Lula's decision to reject Italy's
extradition petition.
Indeed, the former terrorist may be sent to Mexico or
France, sources said.
"It's the case of a foreign citizen whose situation is not
legal who, as a convict for crimes in his country of origin,
does not have the right to remain in Brazil," ruled Rates Mendes
de Abreu.
"Therefore, I cancel the act granting Cesare Battisti the
right to reside in Brazil and request that the expulsion
procedure be applied".
Tamasauskas said Battisti will appeal.
"We don't understand how the sentence can seek to modify a
decision by the Constitutional Court and by the president," said
Tamasauskas.
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