The professor at the University of Brasilia (UnB), Regional Prosecutor of the Republic and former Secretary of International Cooperation of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), Vladimir Aras projects that the extradition process of the federal deputy (PL-SP) of Italy to Brazil can take from a year and a half to two years, in the best hypotheses of the Brazilian justice point of view. Aras points out that he speaks as a scholar of the theme and not as a prosecutor, since he does not act in the case of the deputy.
“At worst, it will be released soon due to the space for political decision, as is common in extradition,” Aras told the Estadão.
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He was PGR’s international cooperation secretary when Brazil obtained, in 2015, the extradition of former Banco do Brasil director Henrique Pizzolato, who fled to Italy after being convicted in the monthly. Vladimir Aras is also a professor of criminal procedural law at the University of Brasilia (UnB) and specialist in international criminal law.
). With double citizenship, after being sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for requesting a hacker the invasion of the systems of the National Council of Justice, to issue a fake arrest warrant against Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
Aras explains that the next step is the equivalent of the Italian Ministry of Justice to decide whether or not to confirm Zambelli’s arrest. If so, it will be up to the appeal in Rome to make a decision on the case.
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Then Brazil will have a period of 45 days to formalize extradition. The Italian Public Prosecution Service and Zambelli’s defense manifest themselves in the process and the court of appeal decides on extradition. The deputy’s lawyers have argued that she suffers political persecution in Brazil.
Those who lose can still resort to the cassation court. “If all goes well, the Italian Ministry of Justice decides if it will actually give it to Brazil. It is a political decision. If it chooses extradition, the defense can challenge the decision in Lazio’s Regional Administrative Court and then to the Council of State,” explained Aras.
Pizzolato fled from Brazil to Italy in 2013. He was arrested in the European country in February 2014. The Italian court was denied the extradition request and release it in October of the same year. The decision was reversed after appeal. The extradition of the former director of Banco do Brasil was realized in October 2015.
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Professor of International Law at USP, Alberto do Amaral Júnior explains that the Italian justice will analyze whether the crimes for which Zambelli was convicted in Brazil – invasion of computer devices and ideological falsehood – are also punishable by the Italian legal system.
According to him, the rules for extradition are different in Brazil and Italy. The Brazilian Constitution does not allow the extradition of nationals. “In Italy is different. This happened precisely with Pizzolato, which had Italian citizenship and was extradited at the request of Brazilian justice,” he said.
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Jurist Wálter Maierovitch states that in cases of double citizenship, the procedure is to verify which one is prevalent. In the case of Zambelli, according to him, it is the Brazilian, because she built her life in Brazil and had no relevant activity in Italy.
He states that the crimes committed by Zambelli have equivalents in the Italian legal system and that the parliamentarian will not be able to support the political support of the government of the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
The Italian government is formed by a coalition of three parties: the Northern League, led by Matteo Salvini-close to Bolsonarism, which blames Zambelli for the defeat in the 2022 election-, Force Italy, the acronym of the founded center-right and chaired by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi until his death in 2023, and the Italy brothers.
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“The last word is from the executive, but Meloni had a recent problem regarding the extradition of the head of a Libya prison. She will not get into another confusion related to extradition,” said Maierovitch.
According to BBCthe prime minister is investigated for the decision to deport Osama Najim, police chief and prison director in Libya and wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. Najim was arrested in January in Italy, released by court days later and deported by the Italian government. He has release his country of origin.
For the jurist, another point that politically weighs against Zambelli is the fact that Italian parliamentarians and senators have manifested themselves for the revocation of the deputy’s citizenship on the grounds that she uses the condition to achieve impunity.
