Megrez
01-04-2011, 11:22 PM
Protesters stage anti-Brazil rallies across Italy (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g-ZggHt5kwoczr3dktPtE5UXH0DA?docId=CNG.807eada669b3e 6530513edb1d83538a1.401)
(AFP) – 5 hours ago
ROME — Protesters rallied across Italy Tuesday against the Brazilian president's refusal to extradite ex-militant Cesare Battisti, amid government assurances that relations with Brazil will not be affected.
Parties from across the political spectrum were behind the protests, which took place in Milan, Palermo and Rome.
Around 300 demonstrators protested in front of the Brazilian Embassy in Rome's historic centre, waving Italian flags and chanting slogans demanding justice and Battisti's immediate extradition.
"It's never too late, we need justice," Maria, a pensioner from Rome said at the rally, which was led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.
The demonstrations followed indignation at President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's refusal on December 31 to extradite Battisti, convicted of murder and considered a "terrorist" by Rome.
Battisti was a member of the Armed Proletariat for Communism (PAC), a radical and armed left-wing group that killed several people in the 1970s.
He has been found guilty of the group's 1978-1979 murders of a prison guard, a special investigator of terrorist organisations, a butcher and a jeweller, and in 1993 was sentenced in his absence to life in prison.
On Tuesday Berlusconi said the affair would not affect Italy-Brazil relations.
"Brazil is a country with which we are tied by an old and firm friendship. This does not concern the relationship between the two countries but is a judicial matter," he said.
Italy's government initially reacted by recalling their ambassador to Brazil, Gherardo La Francesca, to Rome for consultations and vowing to fight Lula's decision.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini announced Italy would be appealing to the Brazilian Supreme Court.
Early Tuesday Frattini met with La Francesca to discuss "the Cesare Battisti affair and its repercussions at the European level."
"A European initiative on the matter, led by Italy, should not be ruled out in the next few hours," Frattini said in a statement following the meeting.
"This isn't a protest against the Brazilian nation, it's against a few individuals that distort reality," Alberto Torregiani, whose jeweller father was killed in 1979 in Milan by a PAC commando unit, told press at the rally.
Battisti, who started a new career as a crime novelist while living in France, has said he is innocent of the murder charges against him. He claims he is the victim of persecution in Italy and risks being killed if returned there.
"Battisti must pay. The fact that he's written a couple of novels doesn't give him immunity", Youth Minister Giorgia Meloni said at the rally in Rome.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
I just watched this on TV. Very surprising for the PC world of nowadays, the journalist had the guts to question, "what if Battisti was a neo-fascist terrorist? Would he not be extradited the next day after his arrest? :rolleyes:"
(AFP) – 5 hours ago
ROME — Protesters rallied across Italy Tuesday against the Brazilian president's refusal to extradite ex-militant Cesare Battisti, amid government assurances that relations with Brazil will not be affected.
Parties from across the political spectrum were behind the protests, which took place in Milan, Palermo and Rome.
Around 300 demonstrators protested in front of the Brazilian Embassy in Rome's historic centre, waving Italian flags and chanting slogans demanding justice and Battisti's immediate extradition.
"It's never too late, we need justice," Maria, a pensioner from Rome said at the rally, which was led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.
The demonstrations followed indignation at President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's refusal on December 31 to extradite Battisti, convicted of murder and considered a "terrorist" by Rome.
Battisti was a member of the Armed Proletariat for Communism (PAC), a radical and armed left-wing group that killed several people in the 1970s.
He has been found guilty of the group's 1978-1979 murders of a prison guard, a special investigator of terrorist organisations, a butcher and a jeweller, and in 1993 was sentenced in his absence to life in prison.
On Tuesday Berlusconi said the affair would not affect Italy-Brazil relations.
"Brazil is a country with which we are tied by an old and firm friendship. This does not concern the relationship between the two countries but is a judicial matter," he said.
Italy's government initially reacted by recalling their ambassador to Brazil, Gherardo La Francesca, to Rome for consultations and vowing to fight Lula's decision.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini announced Italy would be appealing to the Brazilian Supreme Court.
Early Tuesday Frattini met with La Francesca to discuss "the Cesare Battisti affair and its repercussions at the European level."
"A European initiative on the matter, led by Italy, should not be ruled out in the next few hours," Frattini said in a statement following the meeting.
"This isn't a protest against the Brazilian nation, it's against a few individuals that distort reality," Alberto Torregiani, whose jeweller father was killed in 1979 in Milan by a PAC commando unit, told press at the rally.
Battisti, who started a new career as a crime novelist while living in France, has said he is innocent of the murder charges against him. He claims he is the victim of persecution in Italy and risks being killed if returned there.
"Battisti must pay. The fact that he's written a couple of novels doesn't give him immunity", Youth Minister Giorgia Meloni said at the rally in Rome.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
I just watched this on TV. Very surprising for the PC world of nowadays, the journalist had the guts to question, "what if Battisti was a neo-fascist terrorist? Would he not be extradited the next day after his arrest? :rolleyes:"