In the first trial session on the extradition of former federal deputy Carla Zambelli at the Court of Appeal in Rome, this Wednesday (11), a discussion took place between lawyer Pieremilio Sammarco and Italian prosecutor Erminio Amelio regarding the former parliamentarian’s Italian citizenship.
“He said verbatim that Zambelli’s Italian citizenship is ‘just a facade’ and that, formally, she is Italian, but substantially not. It is a legal absurdity that I harshly challenged in a hearing immediately afterwards, when I took the floor yesterday”, revealed Sammarco.
The surname is of Italian origin and, as a result, Zambelli obtained the so-called citizenship right of blood (right of blood). The topic, however, is the subject of discussions in Italy, which has moved towards restricting the recognition of citizenship to descendants.
Given the speech, the lawyer argued that the prosecution was trying to remove Carla and her children’s citizenship rights to make extradition possible. The Court already has precedents that do not authorize it in convictions for political crimes, but common crimes are excluded from the benefit. Given this, the challenge for the defense is to prove the political content of the trial.
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Tagliaferro was not admitted as a witness, but may testify in the future, if judges deem it necessary
As a strategy, Sammarco seeks to have expert Eduardo Tagliaferro admitted as a witness. The defense’s idea is that the former special advisor for combating disinformation at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) confirms that Zambelli suffers political persecution in Brazil, especially by the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes. The Court, however, did not want to hear Tagliaferro at first, and will decide, after analyzing the arguments, whether the testimony will be useful.
On Tuesday (10), the panel met to analyze a request to change judges. In it, Zambelli declared that he has the “maximum respect” for judges, but that he feels insecure about having been the target of bias in trials in Brazil. The work must be resumed with new statements from Zambelli’s defense, followed by the representative of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) in the case, Gentiloni Silveri. The judges then meet to discuss the case.
Sentenced to 10 years in prison by the STF, the former parliamentarian was accused of paying hacker Walter Delgatti Neto, known as the “Araraquara hacker”, to invade the systems of the National Justice Council (CNJ). The invasion resulted in a false arrest warrant signed by Moraes, in which he himself was the defendant to be arrested.
