Italy recalls envoy in extradition spat

Italy is recalling its ambassador to Brazil in a row over Brazil's refusal last week, to extradite a man wanted for deadly leftist guerrilla attacks in the 1970s, the Italian Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Rome said it was responding to a decision made by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last week, granting Cesare Battisti the status of political refugee.

"We hold that Battisti is a terrorist who does not deserve refugee status," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.

Some Italian politicians said the diplomatic protest was too timid, and called for tougher measures, such as cancelling a soccer match against Brazil scheduled for February 10 in London.

Brazil's Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday that the country had acted entirely within Brazilian law.

The case has embroiled French first lady Carla Bruni, who was accused by an Italian victims' association, of influencing the decision during a visit to Brazil in December.

The Italian-born wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy went on Italian television on Sunday to deny this. Last year Ms Bruni was criticised in Italy for supporting an Italian guerilla in exile in France, whose extradition to Italy was rejected by Paris.

Mr Battisti, 54, escaped from an Italian prison in 1981 and lived in France for years. He fled when Paris approved his extradition in 2006 and was arrested on the run in Brazil.

The head of Brazil's supreme court, Gilmar Mendes, must now decide whether to put the case to a vote or drop it and release Mr Battisti, who is being held in a prison outside the capital Brasilia.