the Brazilian government party- PT) and itsallies near the jail and decided to interview them. Our advisors say that fromwhat they could find out, the possible extradition of Pizzolato to Brazil hascaused tremendous confusion among the petistas and has raised severalhypotheses and questions of a legal and political nature, particularly in viewof the fact that former Brazilian President Lula denied the request by Italyfor the extradition of the Italian citizen Cesare Batistti, who was convictedto life imprisonment there. POLITICALLY speaking, the petistas,according to our advisors, are in a tight corner: They do not know whether theyshould or not support the extradition of Pizzolato to Brazil to serve asentence here. If he returns, they are afraid he will open his mouth and startshooting randomly against the PT, as has happened before. If he stays in Italy,the government party would feel guilty for not having supported a comrade afterbeing benefitted so generously by him with millions and millions of reais (theBrazilian currency) received from him via the principal head of that criminalscheme, Marcos Valerio. BY coincidence, Dona Eudoxia Mariaand Euphrasia Nemorosa found on the internet an excellent articlepublished in a Brazilian paper by a well known Brazilian jurist andexpert on extradition matters, Mirto Fraga, where she clarifies the legal questionsof the case and its implications.BELOW, is the textof the article which is just coming out of the fax machine:FREE TRANSLATION:EXTRADITION: ITALYHAS THE WORDPublished inCorreio Braziliense of 02/16/2014.Mirto Fraga, LawyerBrasilia HENRIQUE Pizzolato was convicted by theFederal Supreme Court (STF) in criminal suit No. 470 to 12 years and 7 monthsfor the crimes of conspiracy, embezzlement fraud and money laundering. Awarrant for his arrest was issued on 11/15/2013. BEFORE being convicted, he escapedfrom Brazil bearing an Italian passport registered in the name of his brotherCelso, who died in 1978. On the 5th of this month he wasdetained in Italy. ACCORDING to information obtained through thepress, the Police Commander of the Province of Modena allegedly stated that hisarrest was executed by order of an international arrest warrant (Interpol) andnot for use of a false passport. THESE are the facts and based on them,there have been several speculations: Who has filed the request for hisextradition, the Brazilian government or the STF? As an Italian citizen can thefugitive be extradited? Is his arrest legal without an extradition request? Ifhe is not extradited, will he be free from serving the sentence for the crimescommitted? THE answers are simpler than they appear:From the beginning, let us emphasize that an extradition is an act ofcooperation among States for the repression of crimes. Therefore it is evidentthat it is a process between governments. An extradition is requested bythe Brazilian government, represented by the Excecutive Branch which isresponsible for mantaining diplomatic relations with other States. Theministries of Justice and Foreign Relations are the organizations involved. AS a rule, States do not grant theextradition of their nationals. Brazil is one of them. According to ourconstitution no Brazilian citizen shall be extradited, except for anaturalized Brazilian citizen, in case of a common crime committed beforethe naturalization or of proven involvement in illicit trafficking of narcotics and