Former Brazilian president Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday he was sorry for granting
asylum to former Italian leftist terrorist Cesare Battisti on
his last day in office at the end of 2010.
Lula apologised to Battisti's victims.
He said Battisti "fooled us".
Alberto Torregiani, the wheelchair bound son of a jeweler killed
by Battisti's PAC group in 1979, said Lula's apology was "tardy
and useless".
Battisti, 65, is serving life at Oristano jail in Sardinia for
four murders committed in the 1970s 'Years of Lead'.
He has been in prison in Italy since January 2019 after being
extradited from Brazil, where he fled after becoming a
successful crime writer in France.
Battisti, from Sermoneta near Rome, fled France after the end
of the Mitterrand Doctrine on sheltering leftist militants from
Italy.
In May a Cagliari surveillance court rejected Battisti's bid
to be released from prison to house arrest due to COVID-19
risks.
Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede has come under fire after
hundreds of ailing high-security mafiosi were released due to
COVID concerns.
Bonafede issued a decree to bring them back to prison.
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