Italy holds breath on Battisti expulsion

(ANSA) - Rome, March 3 - The son of one of four people murdered by former terrorist Cesare Battisti on Tuesday welcomed Brazil's reportedly imminent expulsion of the leftist.
    "This could be a chance to reopen the extradition case," said Alberto Torregiani, who was crippled by the attack that killed his father Pierluigi in 1979. This will hinge on the reasons for the expulsion and what country Battisti ends up in, Torregiani told ANSA.
    Politicians from mainstream left-wing parties welcomed news of the reportedly imminent expulsion. "A long chain of protection has been broken," said Democratic Party MP Paolo Bolognesi.
    "Brazil's decision not to shield unpunished terrorists is important".
    Socialist party secretary Riccardo Nencini said "let's hope that the decision...puts an end to a murderer's unfair and golden life on the run". Battisti, 60, has been sentenced to life in prison in Italy for the murder of four people in the 1970s when he was part of an extremist left-wing group during the so-called Years of Lead of political violence.
    Battisti then lived in France for 15 years, becoming a successful crime novelist.
    He fled to Brazil when France put an end to the so-called Mitterrand doctrine giving sanctuary to fugitive leftist guerrillas.
    He was arrested there in April 2007.
    In January 2009, the Brazilian justice ministry granted Battisti political asylum on the grounds that he would face "political persecution" in Italy.
    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.