Brazil asks Italy for extradition of Henrique Pizzolato

The Ministry of Foreign Relations sent to Italy this Wednesday (Feb. 26) the extradition request of former Banco do Brasil marketing director Henrique Pizzolato, sentenced by Brazil’s Supreme Court to twelve years and seven months in jail for money embezzlement in the scandal known as mensalão.

Taking advantage of his dual citizenship, Pizzolato ran away to Italy in September last year, but was subsequently arrested by the Italian police on February 5, in Maranello, holding a counterfeit passport with his brother’s name, Celso, who died over 30 years ago.

As soon as the Brazilian Embassy in Rome receives all the documents, it will send the Pizzolato’s extradition request to the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Italy, which should submit it to the Italian Justice.

In the 153-page-long document, Brazil’s Federal Prosecution Office acknowledges that, as Pizzolato holds dual citizenship, the Italian government does not have to extradite him, but it does argue that his extradition is judicially possible.

In Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot’s view, the agreement between the two countries has made it possible. “The presentation of the extradition request to the Italian Republic is judicially possible, as, besides the legal basis, there’s the noteworthy fact that the extradition of this Italian-Brazilian citizen would be carried into effect in Brazil, a country in which he is also a national, and not to a nation foreign to him,” said Janot.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira