Cesare Battisti is finally able to settle in Brazil, free and with a permanent resident visa. The country's Supreme Court, by six votes against three, decided not to extradite the former left-wing activist, convicted in absentia in 1993 by the Italian courts and sentenced to life imprisonment for four murders and complicity in murder committed in the late 1970s.
Until the last moment, the political and legal drama that has pitted Rome four years in Brasilia caused confusion within the Brazilian authorities.The six-hour debate among the nine justices of the Supreme Court of Brazil have been told, to say the least contentious.
But ultimately, "what is at stake here is the national sovereignty, Judge Luiz Fux justifies. It's very simple: the Court itself decided that the president could decide. " The highest court in Brazil has therefore lost to the decision of the former head of state Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva does not extradite Cesare Battisti.This arbitration was his last day in office, December 31, 2010.
"The Supreme Court had to decide whether Lula's decision was consistent with the extradition treaty between Brazil and Italy, but decided not to deliver a new showdown with the executive and validate the decision Lula ", decrypts Pierre-Ludovic Viollat, FRANCE 24's correspondent in Sao Paolo.
The "deep bitterness" of Berlusconi
The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi expressed "great bitterness" of Rome and intends to contest the ruling of the Supreme Court of Brazil to the International Court of Justice in The Hague."Italy will continue its action and activate the courts to ensure timely compliance with international agreements binding the two countries united by historical bonds of friendship and solidarity", said the "Cavaliere".
"The Italian Minister of Youth, Giorgia Meloni, speaks of an 'act unworthy of a democratic nation,' relates Sonya Logre-Grezzi, FRANCE 24 correspondent in Rome. The decision of the Brazilian judges," said the minister, is a yet another humiliation for the victims' families, a slap to the Italian institutions. "
Since the arrest in March 2007 by Cesare Battisti in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, relations were strained between Brazil and Italy.For, when Rome demanded the extradition of convicted Italian, Brazil granted him political asylum. "Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, then wrote to Lula had asked him to reconsider his decision. The Italian ambassador in Brasilia had been recalled for consultation. And Italian politicians had called for a boycott of Brazilian products," says Pierre Ludovic Viollat.
However, note the corresponding FRANCE 24, "Italian reactions were slightly less virulent over the decision of President Lula, December 31.And even if Rome reacted negatively today, we feel informally, on both sides, we want out of this affair that has lasted four years and pollutes the relationship between the two countries. "
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