BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday turned down an extradition demand for an Italian ex-militant, Cesare Battisti, considered a “terrorist” by Rome for murders committed in the 1970s.

Battisti, who made a new career as a crime novelist while living in France, has said he is innocent of the murder charges against him, and claims he is the victim of “political” persecution in Italy.
The decision, announced by Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, came on Lula's last day in office, and in the wake of warnings from Italy that it would see such a move as “unacceptable.”
“The president today took the decision to not agree to the extradition of Italian citizen Cesare Battisti on the basis of a report by the attorney general,” Amorim told reporters.
“This type of judgment does not constitute an affront from one country to another,” he said, reading from an official statement.
Battisti, 56, has spent three decades on the run in France, Mexico and finally Brazil, where he has been in jail since 2007 pending the result of the Italian extradition request.
Lula's government last year tried to declare Battisti a refugee, prompting Rome to withdrew its ambassador in protest, but Brazil's Supreme Court overturned that designation as illegal.
It said a bilateral extradition treaty should apply, but that Lula would have to make a final decision.
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