Lula to have final say on Battisti’s extradition

Cesare Battisti, the former 1970s guerrilla who has managed to escape justice in his native Italy for the past 28 years, may finally have to go home and face the music. The Supreme Court in Brazil, where he lives as a fugitive, has ruled that he should be extradited to Italy - but that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva should have the final say. Which puts Lula in an awkward position.

Earlier this year, Lula, himself a former leftist activist who has known the inside of a jail cell, granted Battisti political refugee status. Many Italian commentators claimed at the time that he had been persuaded to so by Carla Bruni. Whether that is the case or not - France's First Lady has always denied it - the Brazilian Supreme Court's decision forces Lula to reconsider his position.

Battisti was a member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) group in the 1970s, Italy's so-called anni di plombo - years of lead - when hundreds of people died in political violence between the state and terrorists from both the extreme left and right.

In 1978-79 the group committed four assassinations, including those of a prison guard and a policeman, and pulled off robberies in and around Milan to fund their activities. One of the murders took place in front of the victim's 13-year-old son, who was also hit by gunfire and has been a paraplegic ever since.

Battisti was picked up by police in February 1979, after having been fingered by erstwhile comrades in the PAC who had collaborated with the authorities in return for lesser punishment. He received a 12-and-a-half year sentence for 'participation in an armed group', but was sprung from jail two years later in October 1981. Battisti fled to Mexico, where he remained for nine years.

His second trial in 1988 saw him found guilty in absentia of two murders, and for complicity in the other two. However in 1990, taking advantage of the Mitterrand doctrine that guaranteed freedom for former Italian leftist activists, he returned to Europe to settle in France where he became a successful crime novelist.

In 2002 the doctrine was essentially repealed when a fellow revolutionary, Paolo Persichetti, was extradited to Italy. In 2004, with the Italian government seeking his arrest and deportation, Battisti left France for Brazil.

President Lula's decision early this year to grant Battisti political asylum led to the Italian government recalling their ambassador to Brazil and almost saw the cancellation of a football match between the two nations - the highest form of protest between two such soccer-crazy countries.

Battisti, now 54, has always denied his role in any of the killings - two of which took place after he had been arrested - and recently went on hunger strike in protest at moves to extradite him from Brazil.

His last chance now lies with Lula, who was jailed for his activities against the Brazilian military junta in the 1970s. From his other supposed influential friend, Bruni, little has been heard since she categorically denied her involvement in the case earlier this year. ·