Brazil rejects ex-militant's extradition to Italy

Brazil: Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the extradition to Italy of a former far-left militant and ordered his immediaterelease in a case that has heightened tensions with Rome.

Italy immediately denounced the ruling with a cabinet minister calling it "the upmteenth humiliation" of the victims of Cesare Battisti, who has been sentenced to life for the murders of four persons in the 1970s.

The nine member court ruled by a 6-3 majority that former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's decision to deny the Italian extradition request and authorize Battisti to remain in Brazil complied with a bilateral treaty.

The judges also said that Battisti, 56, who has been in jail fighting extradition for the past four years, should be immediately freed.

Battisti, a member of the radical Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) group, became an international fugitive after escaping from an Italian jail in 1981 and spent decades evading justice living in Mexico, France and Brazil. AFP