Communist terrorist Cesare Battisti arrived in Italy after decades on the run from Italian authorities after Brazil’s new populist president Jair Bolsonaro promised Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini he would have the extremist extradited.
Battisti’s first words upon arriving in his native Italy were an acceptance that he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, saying: “I know I’m going to jail,” according to Il Giornale.
Witnesses who were with Battisti when he landed claimed that he seemed accepting of his situation and that the far-left terrorist thanked the police for their treatment of him.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini, who leads to populist-nationalist League (Lega) which makes up one half of Italy’s coalition government, remarked of the terrorist’s attitude that he “seemed to me to be grinning despite the deaths he has on his shoulders.”
Salvini praised President Bolsonaro, who had previously promised to find and extradite the terrorist.
“I reiterated a huge thank you on behalf of 60 million Italians for allowing us to positively close the Battisti question and we are committed to meet soon in Brazil or in Italy to strengthen the ties between our peoples, our governments, and our personal friendship,” Salvini said.
Brazil: Bolsonaro to Extradite Italy’s ‘Red Terrorist’ Given Asylum Under Socialists https://t.co/pf7jp0PDgl
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 8, 2018
Battisti is a former member of the extremist Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) and was found guilty of four separate murders, including of two Italian officials, in 1990 while under protection in France, claiming to be a political refugee. He later fled to Mexico and then to Brazil in 2004 when French officials changed their views on protecting him.
The successful extradition is likely to further the already friendly relationship between Salvini and Bolsonaro, as the Italian minister was one of the first international figures to congratulate the “Trump of the Tropics” on his election win in October of last year.
Opponents of Salvini have been critical of the entire affair, including a journalist whose outburst was highlighted by Salvini on his Facebook page.
“I do not know who is more dangerous, a terrorist who killed for political reasons in the seventies or the Minister of the Interior who foments hate against other poor human beings and the completely innocent every day of 2019,” the journalist exclaimed.
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