Zambelli releases, reverses roles and revives fight with Italy in the Battisti case

The decision of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation to deny the extradition and authorize the release of former deputy Carla Zambelli (PL-SP), reignites debates over an old diplomatic disagreement between Brazil and Italy.

The denial of requests from STF (Supreme Federal Court) minister Alexandre de Moraes, received last Friday (22), marks a reversal of roles in comparison to a high-profile case involving an Italian. Cesare Battisti was sentenced to life in prison in Italy, but his extradition was denied in 2010 by then president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

"The decision creates an embarrassment for the STF, it is undeniable, especially because extradition was considered very likely. However, I believe that the embarrassment will be greater than the shock in the political and diplomatic relationship with Italy. What happened should cause a momentary shock, but not an earthquake among institutional relations, especially because the decision was not political, as it had been in the case of Cesare Battisti", said professor and doctor in International Law Priscila Caneparo.

During a visit to Italy in 2025, senators Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and Magno Malta (PL-ES) took Battisti's story to the Italian deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, as an argument in defense of Carla Zambelli.

"We remind Salvini that it was Bolsonaro who fulfilled Italy's request and handed over Battisti, unlike what Lula did. This shows who truly respects justice and international treaties", Malta said at the time.

However, the expert highlights differences in relation to the two cases. "It is clear that in the collective imagination, the case of Cesare Battisti comes back to the fore, but there are crucial differences. In the case of Battisti, political asylum was in fact granted to him. Brazil understood that at that moment there would be political and ideological persecution. In the case of Zambelli, we are still in the judicial phase, which raises only technical criteria" explained Caneparo, identifying the action as unlikely to be a response or resentment in relation to the previous one.

Remember the Cesare Battisti case
Former Italian activist Cesare Batistti was sentenced to life in prison by Italian justice for the murder of four people in 1970. Battisti was a member of the group "Proletarians Armed for Communism" (PAC) and was on the run in France and later in Brazil, where he was arrested in 2007.

In 2010, then president Lula decided not to extradite Battisti. The president's position at the time was contrary to that taken by the STF, which had already agreed to hand over the Italian.

Through a press release, the Presidency said it had "carefully" considered all the clauses of the Extradition Treaty between Brazil and Italy. The treaty provided for non-extradition in cases of "possible worsening of the social or personal condition" of the extradited person, a term used to include political persecution in the Government's interpretation.

After Lula's decision, Italian defense minister Ignazio La Russa said that if Brazil granted political refugee status to Battisti, the country would not be "exempt from consequences". At the time, the Brazilian president's attitude provoked protests in Rome and indignation on the part of the Italian Government, which recalled the Italian ambassador to Brazil as a political movement after the refusal of extradition.

Carla Zambelli's arrest trajectory
Zambelli was arrested on July 29 last year in Italy, after her name was included in Interpol's Red Diffusion as an international fugitive. She left Brazil after two convictions, one regarding the invasion of the CNJ (National Council of Justice) system and issuing a false arrest warrant against minister Alexandre de Moraes and the other for illegal possession of a weapon in the case in which she pointed a revolver at a man in São Paulo.

Last Wednesday (20), STF minister Alexandre de Moraes ordered the Ministry of Justice and Itamaraty to adopt the necessary measures to begin the extradition process of the former federal deputy. However, two days after the determination, the Supreme Court of Cassation rejected the request for her to return to Brazil, which led to Zambelli's release from prison in Italy.

Now free, the former paralegal thanked God for the result of her release and said that she is on a "life of mission". "And now we are free, thank God, to continue a life of mission. You don't know what that mission is yet, but you will soon know," said Zambelli in a video published on his lawyer's social media.

The final word on Zambelli's fate, however, will be that of the European country's Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, who reports to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Italian justice judges appeal and denies extradition of Carla Zambelli | CNN 360º

Source: CNN