Brazil Supreme Court denies habeas corpus to Cesare Battisti

Supreme Court (STF) Justice Luiz Fux rejected an application for habeas corpus submitted early this month by former Italian activist Cesare Battisti's defense attorneys. The petition is an attempt to prevent his possible extradition to Italy.

Battisti was sentenced in Italy to life imprisonment for homicide. In 2004, he escaped to Brazil and was arrested three years later. The Italian government requested his extradition, which was granted by the STF. In 2010, on the last day of his mandate, then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ruled that Battisti should stay in Brazil, and the decision was confirmed by the court.

Fux's ruling is dated September 15 and was released Tuesday (20) on STF's website.

Arguments used by the defense

In the request, Battisti's counsel mentions “the arrestee's fear that the current Brazilian government—on its own or after being teased into it by Italian authorities—may revise the decision previously made by the head of the Executive and order his extradition to his country of origin, thus justifying the filing of the habeas petition.”

The defense further talks about the attempted use of the Foreigner's Statute to have Battisti sent abroad, and names a public interest civil action filed by the Federal Prosecution Service.

In the justice's view, the petition filed with the STF by Battisti's lawyers shows no evidence of threat to the former activist's right to come and go. “The arrestee fails to demonstrate any concrete act of threat against himself or illegal constraint on his liberty. Broad statements arguing he is being persecuted by government agencies are not sufficient,” Fux's text reads.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira