The Lyon Court of Appeal on Friday rejected the request of the Italian judicial authorities to hand over the anti-globalization activist Vincenzo Vecchi, long requested after his heavy conviction for violence during the G8 in Genoa in 2001.
In its judgment, of which AFP obtained a copy, the investigating chamber of the court of appeal considers in particular that handing over Vincenzo Vecchi "would constitute
a disproportionate attack on the right to respect for (his) private and family life
".
Incrimination without French equivalence
In their pleadings during the hearing on February 24, his lawyers had insisted on this aspect at length, highlighting his professional and family integration and his "rootedness
"
in a village in Brittany where, a refugee after his conviction, he had been arrested. in 2019 under a European arrest warrant issued in 2016.
The public prosecutor's office has three days to appeal this decision.
At the hearing, the representative of the public prosecutor had demanded the surrender of the activist to his country, relying on a decision of the European Court of Justice (CJEU).
Appearing free at the hearing, in the presence of his many supporters, Vincenzo Vecchi, 49, was definitively sentenced in Italy to 10 years in prison for acts of violence during the anti-G8 demonstrations organized in Genoa in July 2001.
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The courts of appeal of Rennes in 2019 and Angers in November 2020 had already rejected this Italian request, that of Angers essentially justifying its decision by the fact that the incrimination of "devastation and pillage", created under
Mussolini
and for which he had been definitively sentenced to 10 years in prison in Italy, had no equivalent in France.
After a new appeal by the public prosecutor's office, the Court of Cassation had taken an opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union.
This, in March 2022, had indicated that “
perfect correspondence
” was not required and that France could not oppose extradition.
The Court of Cassation then referred the case to the Lyon Court of Appeal.