Brazil to expel Italian ex-terrorist Cesare Battisti
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Brazil to expel Italian ex-terrorist Cesare Battisti

Brazil to expel Italian ex-terrorist Cesare Battisti

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(AGI) Rome, March 3 - A Brazilian federal court decided onTuesday to annul the government act granting asylum to formerItalian left-wing extremist Cesare Battisti. Sentenced in Italyfor the murder of four people, Battisti could now be expelledto France or Mexico, countries where he resided after fleeingItaly and before arriving in Brazil in 2004, the Brazilianwebsite Globo.com reports. The court's sentence has not yetbeen made public, but another appeal will be possible once ithas. According to judge Tariffe Mendes de Abreu, cited byBrazilian media, Battisti's position in the country is"irregular" and "as a criminal sentenced in his home country hedoes not have the right to stay here". The judge specified thatan expulsion is not to be confused with an extradition.Battisti's lawyers, Pierpaolo Cruz Bottini and Igor Sant'AnnaTamasauskas, said they will appeal. In an interview with R7,Tamasauskas said the judge nonetheless touched on issuespertaining to extradition, which can only be decided on by theSupreme Court or Brazilian President. Battisti, born in 1954,joined the far-left extremist group PAC (Armed Proletarians forCommunism) and received four life-sentences for four murderscommitted between 1978 and 1979. He was granted politicalasylum by Brazil in June 2011 and has since lived there withthe rights and freedoms of a Brazilian citizen. Battisti wasarrested in Italy in 1979 for being part of an armed group, butmanaged to escape from prison in 1981 and flee to France, wherehe met his future wife. He then moved to Mexico, where helearned of his four in absentia life-sentences. Returning toParis, he was once again arrested in 1991 in accordance with anextradition request from the Italian government. A lengthy tugof war then began between Italy and the various nations towhich he had fled, the latest of these being Brazil, whereItaly's extradition request was denied by a federal court in2011.. .
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