A convicted left-wing terrorist who Italy wants extradited from Brazil has told a French-German TV channel that he would rather kill himself than return to Italy.
''I will not go back to Italy, I'll never go back alive,'' Cesare Battisti told Arte TV from his cell in Papuda, near the Brazilian capital Brasilia, where he is awaiting a definitive ruling on his extradition.
''I'm afraid, but there are things that one can still decide, like when to die. I don't think I'll let others decide my death, not the unjust Italian government,'' the 54-year-old former terrorist added.
In the interview, which Arte TV will broadcast on Saturday, Battisti said that ''after 30 years they've put me in jail for crimes I didn't commit. I never killed anyone. I was a member of an armed gang and took part in some robberies, but I was just a militant and not the monster, the killer they made me out to be''.
Battisti was an alleged leader of the 1970s leftist terrorist group Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) which was held responsible for four murders and numerous robberies in the late 1970s.
In order to avoid prosecution in Italy, he fled to France in 1981 where he lived for over 20 years and became a successful writer of crime novels.
Italy's request five years ago for his extradition made front-page headlines in France, with French left-wing parties and libertarian newspapers rallying to support the former terrorist's battle to remain in Paris.
Battisti went missing in France in August 2004 while awaiting the outcome of his appeal against extradition and later turned up in Brazil, where he was arrested in March 2008.
Brazil initially granted Battisti political asylum because he risked ''persecution'' due to his political convictions if he was returned to Italy.
According to the Brazilian justice ministry, Battisti had been condemned in Italy only after he had fled to France and on evidence not based on fact but on testimony given by a former terrorist turned state's witness.
The Brazilian justice ministry explained at the time that ''it is a tradition in Brazil to grant political refugee status when we believe there is a real risk that a citizen will be subjected to political persecution''.
Italy firmly protested and worked to have his case reviewed by the highest authorities. A decision is currently pending from Brazil's supreme court.
