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Brazil will not bow to Italy to extradite Battisti: Lula
AFP - Saturday, January 31
BELEM, Brazil (AFP) - - Brazil will not extradite Italian ex-militant Cesare Battisti, despite mounting pressure from Rome, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said here Friday.
He made the firm statement after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed to "leave no stone unturned to obtain Battisti's extradition" and expressed confidence that Brazil's supreme court would rule in Italy's favor in the case.
The exchange kept alive a row between the two countries which threatens to spill into a diplomatic confrontation.
Italy has already recalled its ambassador to Brazil in a sign of the fury felt over Brasilia's decision to protect a man Rome describes as a convicted "terrorist."
Battisti, 54, has been sentenced in absentia in Italy to life imprisonment over the murders of four people in the 1970s, when he was a member of an armed communist group.
He lived as an exile in France for 14 years, rejecting his militant past and transforming himself into a writer of thrillers. He has repeatedly protested his innocence.
In 2004, faced with possible extradition because of a change in France's laws, he fled to Brazil -- with help from French intelligence agents, he told Brazil's Istoe magazine this week.
He was arrested in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 at Italy's request.
On January 13 this year, though, Brazilian Justice Minister Tarso Genro granted Battisti political refugee status. Brazil's supreme court is weighing whether to release him, now that extradition appears all but impossible under the decision.
Italy, though, has not given up, and has bristled at Brazil's claim that Battisti faced persecution if handed over.
The Brazilian supreme court on Thursday gave Italy five days to file papers in the case.
Lula's comment Friday suggested his government would block any attempt to overturn Genro's decision.
Under Brazilian law, the granting of "political refugee" status is ultimately the responsibility of the justice minister, not the courts. Brazil's supreme court can only determine "asylum" -- an otherwise almost identical status.
Brazil's government, Lula told a media conference at the World Social Forum taking place in Belem, "can permit whoever it wants to keep living in Brazil."
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Enlarge Photo
Italian former far-left activist Cesare Battisti (C) is escorted by Brazilian policemen upon his arrival at Brasilia airport in 2007. Brazil will not extradite Battisti, despite mounting pressure from Rome, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said here Friday.
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