Federal judge orders Cesare Battisti's deportation to Mexico or France

Three and a half years after receiving the first documents that would enable him to live and work in Brazil, former Italian activist Cesare Battisti, convicted to life in prison in his native country for homicide while a member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism, had the act in which his visa was granted revoked.

In a ruling pronounced on February 26 and announced on Tuesday (3), First-Instance Federal Judge in Brasília Adverci Rates Mendes de Abreu granted a request made by the Federal Prosecution Office and regarded as illegal the decision of the National Immigration Council to give Battisti a permanent  visa in Brazil.

In the judge's view, the measure goes against a “rule of mandatory observance,” found in the Foreigner's Statute, which makes it illegal to grant a visa to a foreigner convicted or charged with an intentional crime in another country. In the order, which may be appealed, the magistrate determines that the government conducts Battisti's process of deportation to Mexico or France, the countries where he was before coming to Brazil.

After being convicted in Italy, Battisti fled to Brazil in 2004, where he was arrested three years later. The Italian government asked for his extradition, and the request was granted by Brazil's Federal Supreme Court. However, in the last year of his term of office, then-President Lula ordered that Battisti should stay in Brazil, and the decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Members of the court believed that the president should have the last word, since it was a matter of national sovereignty. Battisti was released from the Papuda Penitentiary, in Brasília, on June 9, 2011, where he had been taken in 2007. In August the same year, the Italian national was granted a permanent visa from the National Immigration Council.

Judge Mendes de Abreu, however, argues that the former activist should be deported, and not extradited, which would not go against the former president's decision. “The institutes for deportation and extradition cannot be confused, since the deportation does not imply questioning the president's decision of  non extradition, as it is not necessary to send the foreigner back to his native country—Italy, in this case. He may be sent to the country he came from, or another one, if it agrees to receive him,” the judge said.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira