A French court's rejection of Italy's
extradition request for a former anti-capitalist militant who
has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for criminal damage and
affray during the riots that marred the Group of Eight summit in
Genoa in 2001 became final Tuesday when prosecutors decided not
to appeal against Friday's verdict.
AFP reported that Lyon prosecutors declined to appeal against a
court of appeal in the French city which on Friday rejected the
request by the Italian judicial authorities to extradite
Vincenzo Vecchi, an
'altermondialist' militant convicted in Italy for the violence
at the summit in the northern Italian port city.
The European arrest warrant was issued in 2016 so that Vecchi,
who had been living in France for many years, could return to
Italy to serve his 10-year prison sentence.
In the ruling seen by Agence France Presse, the French judges
considered, among other things, that handing Vecchi over to
Italy "would represent a disproportionate outrage against
respect for his private and family life".
Militant anti-globalists rioted for days in the Ligurian capital
and a protester, Carlo Giuliani, was shot dead by a Carabiniere
he was attacking with a fire extinguisher a day before a
night-time raid on a school used by protesters which earned
Italy a condemnation for torture from a European court and which
Amnesty International called the worst suspension of democracy
in western Europe since WWII.
Several police were punished for the police brutality at the
July 2001 summit in the northwestern Italian city, which was
marred by mayhem by extremists and, according to
anti-globalists, agents provocateurs.
But some of the officers in charge escaped punishment and were
promoted.
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