Italy rejects the execution of the Brazilian sentence for Leonardo Badalamenti

Italy has rejected Brazil's request to carry out on its territory the sentence of 5 years and 10 months in prison for drug trafficking imposed by the justice of Sao Paulo on Leonardo Badalamenti, son of the historic Cosa Nostra boss Gaetano Badalamenti.

The local press reports this, specifying that the decision, communicated by the Italian authorities to the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, is motivated by the absence of an international agreement that expressly provides for the recognition and execution of a foreign sentence. Rome has in fact deemed the 1983 European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons to be inapplicable, as Brazil has not joined the relevant Additional Protocol adopted in Strasbourg in 1997.

Badalamenti, now free in Palermo, lived for about 15 years in San Paolo, in the Bixiga district, using false identities. He was arrested in 2007 with 55.2 grams of cocaine, introducing himself as Carlos Massetti, and in 2009 he was detained again as part of an international investigation into alleged bank fraud. It was then that the authorities of São Paulo discovered his true identity. The Brazilian sentence was issued in 2015 while the defense, G1 reports, welcomed the Italian decision, contesting the regularity of the Brazilian trial.