Sunday, June 12, 2011

Battisti: Italy recalls its ambassador to Brazil

Italy has decided to recall its ambassador for consultation in Brasilia after Brazil's decision not to extradite and to release the former left-wing Italian activist Cesare Battisti. Minister Franco Frattini has decided "the temporary recall to Rome for consultation," the ambassador Gherardo La Francesca, said Friday the department.

The recall was decided "to deepen, together with other relevant agencies, technical and legal aspects relating to the implementation of existing bilateral agreements for initiatives and appeals to international judicial bodies," the statement said . Italy announced on Thursday, hours after Brazil's decision to release Cesare Battisti, its intention to appeal to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, called to settle disputes between states.


Italy considers that Brazil may have violated a bilateral extradition treaty. "Our only option is to use the [ICJ] The Hague, said on Thursday the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, while stressing that" we're still not making war in Brazil. " Berlusconi has pledged that Italy will throw "all its forces" for "heard his reasons" against a decision which "hurts our sense of justice and those who suffered this case." "The match is not completed, the first half was won by terrorism", but the second half will be played before the ICJ, "which will recognize that the extradition treaty (between Brazil and Italy) has been violated, "was found on Thursday Mr Frattini.

The ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, is responsible for settling disputes between states. Cesare Battisti, 56, was wanted in Italy after he was convicted in 1993 in absentia to life imprisonment for four murders and complicity in murder in the late 1970s - the "leaden years" of terrorism - crimes he says he is innocent.

In 2009, the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court had agreed to extradite Mr Battisti, but in a controversial decision, President Lula had left the ultimate decision. The refusal of Mr. Lula da Silva, December 31, 2010, the last day in office to extradite Battisti had caused a diplomatic crisis between the first Brasilia and Rome, which even then had recalled its ambassador for consultation in Brasilia.

Arrested in 1979 when he was active in the armed splinter group desProlétaires for Communism (PAC), Cesare Battisti escaped in 1981 and began a long lam in Mexico, France (1990-2004), where he became a novelist police and then to Brazil. In 2007, he was arrested in Rio de Janeiro, where he lived for three years and jailed for four years.

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