Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could refuse to extradite former Italian left-wing activist Cesare Battisti, jailed in Brazil since 2007. The website of the Brazilian newspaper Globo ensures that Lula has decided not to agree with the opinion of the Supreme Court of Brazil, which had authorized his extradition to Italy in November 2009.In its ruling, the Court stated that the final decision was up to the Brazilian President. The Brazilian head of state has often hinted that he was opposed to the extradition of Battisti, without expressly deciding. Lula has until Dec. 31, when he hands over to Dilma Rousseff, to formalize its decision.
Battisti, 54, took refuge in France in 1990 where he became a crime writer. He left the country in 2004 and took refuge in Brazil, where he was arrested in 2007. He is being held in Brasilia since, awaiting possible extradition to Italy. Former member of armed splinter group of the Communist Workers (CAP), he was sentenced in absentia in Italy in 1993 for having committed or prepared four homicides in 1978 and 1979, crimes for which he has always proclaimed innocent.
Cesare Battisti, who was granted political asylum in Brazil, estimated in the Italian press in 2009, he had become a "trophy". "That's why we hounds in Italy. There's nobody at that time in prison, and now you want to be me who pays for everybody, "he said.
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