Cesare Battisti
auton | 31.12.2010 19:06 | Analysis | Social Struggles
Italy has been desperate to get its hands on Cesare Battisti, who has become something of a scapegoat for the country's years of political violence - someone to blame for the period known as the "Years of Lead"
*Italy has reacted with fury to the Brazilian president's decision on his last day in office not to extradite an Italian former left-wing militant.
[Italy has been desperate to get its hands on Cesare Battisti, who has become something of a scapegoat for the country's years of political violence - someone to blame for the period known as the "Years of Lead.
These were the dark days of the 1970s and early 1980s, when bombings and assassinations rocked Italy's political foundations. Very few people were ever prosecuted. There was talk of the state having a hand in some of the attacks.]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12098475
*After he was arrested in Brazil in 2007, the Italian government requested his extradition under an existing bilateral treaty. It said the former member of the radical Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) was a terrorist, and 'convicted' him of shooting people.
However Cesare has said previously, while granted a form of asylum and living in France, that "I am guilty, as I have often said, of having participated in an armed group with a subversive aim and of having carried weapons. But I never shot anyone,"
He felt it was impossible to get a fair trial in Italy, and given that the then French President opened up France to any socialists/communists who had taken up against the Italian state, it seems he may have had a point.
*The ins and outs of this make interesting reading for any students of European radicalism in the late 20th century, and the impact it still has now.
Have a read - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Battisti_%281954%29
[Italy has been desperate to get its hands on Cesare Battisti, who has become something of a scapegoat for the country's years of political violence - someone to blame for the period known as the "Years of Lead.
These were the dark days of the 1970s and early 1980s, when bombings and assassinations rocked Italy's political foundations. Very few people were ever prosecuted. There was talk of the state having a hand in some of the attacks.]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12098475 *After he was arrested in Brazil in 2007, the Italian government requested his extradition under an existing bilateral treaty. It said the former member of the radical Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) was a terrorist, and 'convicted' him of shooting people.
However Cesare has said previously, while granted a form of asylum and living in France, that "I am guilty, as I have often said, of having participated in an armed group with a subversive aim and of having carried weapons. But I never shot anyone,"
He felt it was impossible to get a fair trial in Italy, and given that the then French President opened up France to any socialists/communists who had taken up against the Italian state, it seems he may have had a point.
*The ins and outs of this make interesting reading for any students of European radicalism in the late 20th century, and the impact it still has now.
Have a read -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Battisti_%281954%29
auton