Italian Terrorist Cesare Battisti Released Few Hours After Being Arrested in São Paulo

03/13/2015 - 10h12

Cesare Battisti was released after being arrested on Thursday (12) by the Federal Police in Embu das Artes (SP).

He was taken to the Federal Police Superintendence in Lapa, where he waited for the decision on his deportation.
 
His attorney Igor Sant'Anna Tamasauskas informed that the Federal Regional Court of São Paulo accepted the temporary release request presented on the same day.

The decision of Federal Judge Cândido Ribeiro determined the "immediate compliance" of his release. He made it clear that it is not up to the Federal Court to overrule previous decisions taken by superior courts.

"The habeas corpus caused the case to be solved with the speed required and Justice was done", said Tamasauskas. "Now we believe things are going to be adjusted", he added.

The judge of the 20th Federal Court of Brasilia, Adverci Rates, had taken Battisti into custody and ordered the deportation of ex-Italian terrorist on March 26 in a response to a Public Prosecutor's Office request.

Battisti was a member of the PAC (Armed Proletarians for Communism) in the 1970's and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Italy on charges of having committed four murders. He managed to escape from Italy, lived a few years in France, passed by Mexico and, in 2004, came to Brazil.
 
The Italian had already been arrested in 2007 to be extradited. The Supreme Federal Court (STF) authorized his extradition in 2009. However, the President of the Republic gave the last word on the case.
 
In 2010, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva denied his extradition. The Presidential Act determined Battisti could stay in Brazil and the National Immigration Council granted him a residence permit.
 
In the request sent to court, the Public Prosecutor's Office did not request his extradition, but his deportation, claiming that people convicted of intentional crimes abroad do not have the right to remain in Brazil.
 
Battisti left the Federal Police Superintendence and headed to his home accompanied by his attorney and the City's Secretary Human Rights Eduardo Suplicy.

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI

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	Avener Prado/Folhapress
	Italian former leftist guerrilla Cesare Battisti leaves the headquarters of Federal Police after in Sao Paulo