Brazil detains Italian fugitive Battisti leaving country
Cesare Battisti
Italian former leftist guerrilla Cesare Battisti  leaves the headquarters of Federal Police in Sao Paulo March 13  2015. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian highway police on Wednesday detained  Cesare Battisti   an Italian former left-wing guerrilla convicted of murder in  his  country  as  he  was attempting to cross the border into Bolivia in a taxi  federal police said.
 Battisti  was apparently trying to leave Brazil after Italy reportedly asked Brazil’s government to revoke  his  asylum status and extradite  him  to serve  his  prison sentence.
 He  was stopped by highway police as  he  was about to cross the border in a Bolivian taxi and was held for possession of a “significant” quantity of undeclared foreign currency  the federal police said in a statement.
 Battisti  faced life in prison in Italy  where  he  was convicted of four murders committed in the 1970s  when  he  belonged to a guerilla group called Armed Proletarians for Communism.  He  escaped from prison in 1981 and lived in France before fleeing to Brazil to avoid being extradited to Italy.
 Battisti ’s lawyer  Igor Sant‘Anna  told Reuters that he had sought a habeas corpus injunction last week due to the risk that President Michel Temer’s government could agree to Italy’s request. Habeas corpus is a legal procedure that keeps a government from holding a person without showing cause.
Italian former leftist guerrilla [TGT]  leaves the headquarters of Federal Police in Sao Paulo March 13  2015. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian highway police on Wednesday detained  [TGT]   an Italian former left-wing guerrilla convicted of murder in  his  country  as  he  was attempting to cross the border into Bolivia in a taxi  federal police said.
 Battisti  was apparently trying to leave Brazil after Italy reportedly asked Brazil’s government to revoke  his  asylum status and extradite  him  to serve  his  prison sentence.
 He  was stopped by highway police as  he  was about to cross the border in a Bolivian taxi and was held for possession of a “significant” quantity of undeclared foreign currency  the federal police said in a statement.
 Battisti  faced life in prison in Italy  where  he  was convicted of four murders committed in the 1970s  when  he  belonged to a guerilla group called Armed Proletarians for Communism.  He  escaped from prison in 1981 and lived in France before fleeing to Brazil to avoid being extradited to Italy.
 Battisti ’s lawyer  Igor Sant‘Anna  told Reuters that he had sought a habeas corpus injunction last week due to the risk that President Michel Temer’s government could agree to Italy’s request. Habeas corpus is a legal procedure that keeps a government from holding a person without showing cause.