The day following the decision that rejected Brazil’s first request for the former deputy (PL-SP) to be extradited was marked by expectations for the publication of the Court of Cassation’s justifications, which should occur in the coming days.
Involved in the case, between disbelief and caution, they await the publication of the sentence to understand what motivated the reversal, by the last instance of the Italian Court, of the authorization of Zambelli’s delivery to Brazil, so that he could serve ten years in prison.
On Friday night (22), after a hearing held in the morning, the Court of Appeal, referring to the conviction for the invasion of the (National Council of Justice) system and the issuance of a false arrest warrant against the minister, from the (Supreme Federal Court).
With that, this first order was closed. He will not go to the Italian government —this would only happen if the extradition had been confirmed—, and there is no possibility for Brazil to appeal.
A few hours later, Zambelli left the prison where he had been for almost ten months. According to Folha, she spent the first night in , where her husband, Colonel Aginaldo, is staying.
“We are waiting for the allegations of this decision to understand why there was this sudden change of understanding”, said this Saturday (23) the Brazilian ambassador to , Renato Mosca. “Until then, the Court of Appeal had given opinions in favor of extradition, and the Court of Cassation normally follows this understanding, unless there is an original defect, a serious issue.”
Asked about the reactions of Itamaraty and the Brazilian government, the ambassador said that the decision was received naturally. “It is a decision of the Italian Court, and it is not for us to judge it.”
Mosca also prefers to wait for the court’s justifications to be released to assess the impact of the decision on relations between Brazil and Italy. “We still have to wait for the arguments to understand,” he said.
In the brief statement sent to lawyers, to which the report had access, the judges state that the Court of Appeal’s sentence must be annulled “without resubmission”, that is, without the possibility of being redone. The magistrates declared the “lack of conditions for accepting the extradition request”, without explaining the reasons.
“Essentially, Cassação understands that there are no conditions in Brazil for Zambelli’s detention, whether due to inhumane conditions, health conditions or because the prisons do not respect the rule of law equivalent to the Italian one”, said Italian deputy Angelo Bonelli, from the opposition to Giorgia Meloni’s government. “If the issue is prison conditions, you need to see the sentence that will be announced in the next few days.”
The parliamentarian says he does not expect the decision to affect bilateral relations. “The court is an autonomous body of the Executive branch. The Meloni government has freed itself from an embarrassment,” he said, referring to the fact that this first request will not have the final say from the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio.
Bonelli has been following the case since before Zambelli arrived in Italy, almost a year ago, and is considered the person who revealed the former deputy’s hiding place in Rome to the police. “The decisions of the courts must be respected. I did what I did because no one can have an arrogant stance, like saying ‘since I’m Italian, I’m untouchable’,” he said.
Zambelli is the target of a second extradition request, regarding his sentence to five years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm and illegal restraint, in the episode in which he pointed a gun at a man in São Paulo. The Court of Appeal also ruled in favor of extradition, and the defense appeal should be judged at the Court of Cassation in around 30 days.
According to the treaty between Brazil and Italy on the subject, from the 1990s, a convicted person can only be extradited, among other points, if they have had the minimum rights of defense guaranteed in the country of origin and in the absence of reasons to suppose that, after being extradited, they will be subjected to a sentence or treatment that violates fundamental rights.
Since the beginning of the proceedings, in the second half of last year, the defense has maintained the line that Zambelli was a victim of political persecution in the STF trial. They point out that the process has “anomalies” due to the fact that “the victim of the alleged crime is the same person who made the sentence, who decided to execute the sentence and who decided the appeal”, in reference to Moraes.
Another point that seems to have gained relevance in the final stretch were Brazilian prison conditions, specifically those at Colmeia, the prison in the Federal District chosen by Moraes for Zambelli to serve his sentence in Brazil. For lawyers, they represent a risk to the former deputy, in terms of human rights.
