Brasilia - It's up to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to decide whether leftist Cesare Battisti, a suspect in four murders in the 1970s, is to be extradited to Italy. The Supreme Court approved the extradition on Wednesday. It then ruled, in a second vote, that Battisti's extradition would be up to Lula.
With the final word in the matter now resting with the government, Lula is trying to find a way out of a tricky situation, according to news reports Thursday.
Five judges favoured the extradition, while five others voted against it. Presiding judge Gilmar Mendes cast the decisive vote in favour of extradition.
Mendes argued that the charges against Battisti are criminal rather than political, even though the defendant belonged to the organization, Armed Proletarians of Communism (PAC), at the time.
Battisti, 54, denies having committed the killings.
Analysts agreed Thursday that Lula was in a difficult position.
"He will not be able to please Greeks and Trojans alike," analyst Kennedy Alencar said in the daily Folha de Sao Paulo.
"The president knows that a portion of the Brazilian left will feel let down if he chooses to send Battisti to Italy. And he knows that Italy will be furious if he decides to keep the former terrorist in Brazil," Alencar said.
On Monday, after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome, Lula said he would not refuse to hand over Battisti in case the Supreme Court decision was "determinant," but he left open the chance to grant him asylum if the court decision placed no obligation on the government.
Italy temporarily withdrew its ambassador from Brasilia in January after Brazil's Justice Minister Tarso Genro granted Battisti refugee status. The Supreme Court determined nine months later that that move was illegal.
Vice President Jose Alencar told Brazilian TV channel BandNews that if the decision were his to make, he would extradite Battisti.
On Thursday, broadcaster GloboNews reported that Lula favoured resorting to "humanitarian reasons" not to hand over Battisti. The accused has been on a hunger strike for a week in Papuda prison in Brasilia, and Brazilian authorities could argue that he was ill.
Battisti has been on the run from Italian authorities since 1981, when he escaped from prison while awaiting trial for four killings allegedly committed by the PAC.
He fled to France and was subsequently tried in absentia for two of the murders and sentenced to life in prison.
In France, Battisti benefited from a policy introduced by then- president Francois Mitterand granting Italian leftists refuge. He embraced a new career as a mystery writer.
However, sensing that France was reversing its asylum policy, Battisti disappeared in 2004. He re-emerged in Brazil, where he was arrested in March 2007 following a request from Interpol.
