2009-01-14 13:22 Ex- terrorist gets asylum in Brazil Italy voices disappointment over decision on Battisti <http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/med/0f2d9cc1027caf1b721c22c f7787d47e.jpg> (ANSA) - Rome, January 14 - The Italian foreign ministry on Wednesday expressed its disappointment over Brazil's decision to grant political asylum to leftist terrorist Cesare Battisti, convicted in Italy for four murders. Italy, the ministry said, was ''very surprised and disappointed over the decision by the Brazilian justice minister who, ignoring the position of the National Committee for Refugees, granted an appeal by Cesare Battisti, a convicted terrorist responsible for serious crimes which have nothing to do with the status of a political refugee''. The 54-year-old Battisti was arrested in Brazil last March, some four years after he had fled to that country to avoid extradition to Italy from France, where he had lived for 15 years and become a successful writer of crime novels. According to the Brazilian justice ministry's director for legislative affairs, Pedro Abromovay, ''it is a tradition in Brazil to grant political refugee status when we believe there is a real risk that a citizen will be subjected to political persecution''. The justice ministry's decision came two months after the National Committee for Refugees voted three to two against Battisti's asylum request. The ministry explained that the decision to grant asylum to ''the Italian author'' was based on a 1951 Brazilian statute and a subsequent 1997 law which defined the guidelines for granting asylum that included ''the real threat of persecution due to race... or political opinion''. According to the Brazilian ministry, Battisti had been condemned in Italy only after he had fled to France in 1981 and on evidence not based on fact but on testimony given by a former terrorist turned state's witness, Pietro Mutti. In a recent interview published by the Brazilian magazine Epoca, Battisti said he was convinced that he would be a ''dead man'' if he ever returned to Italy, the ''victim of a vendetta''. He also claimed that in 2004 in Brazil he had been the target of an attempted kidnapping ''by a special, secret branch of the Italian intelligence service''. Brazilian government sources said the decision to grant refugee status was the sole responsibility of the justice minister and thus did not involve President Luis Inacio da Silva. In its statement on Wednesday, the Italian foreign ministry urged the Brazilian president to do whatever possible to have the justice ministry's decision overturned. PROSECUTORS AND VICTIMS' RELATIVES DISMAYED. Dismay and disappointed over Brazil's decision was also voiced by family members of Battisti's victims. Alessandro Santoro, son of Udine prison guard commander Antonio Santori who was shot dead in 1978, said the justification given by Brazilian authorities ''depicts an Italy which does not exist''. ''To believe that someone like Battisti, sentenced to life for four murders, is or would be the victim of political persecution in Italy is, frankly, unacceptable,'' he told ANSA. Adriano Sabbadin - the son of Venice butcher Lino Sabbadin, who was gunned down in 1979 by the leftist group for killing a robber during an attempted hold-up - said the news from Brazil ''was much, much worse than a slap in the face''. ''There is no way Battisti can be considered a political refugee or the victim of persecution. He was tried and convicted by a court of law, even on appeal,'' Sabbadin said. Venice prosecutor Ennio Fortuna, who won a conviction for Sabbadin's murder, told ANSA that ''it is impossible to combat terrorism when legal and political considerations like these (Brazil's) prevail''. According to Milan assistant chief prosecutor Armando Spataro, who put together the state's case against Battisti's terrorist group, ''to maintain that Battisti could be the subject of political persecution by the Italian state is an offense not only to our judicial system but also to the memory of those he killed or had killed''. Battisti was an ex-leader of the 1970s leftist terrorist group Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC). Italy's request five years ago for his extradition made front-page headlines in France, with French left-wing parties and libertarian newspapers rallying to support the former terrorist's battle to remain in Paris. Battisti went missing in France in August 2004 while awaiting the outcome of his appeal against extradition and later turned up in Brazil. http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-01-14_114312637.ht ml [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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