A French court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for former leftist Italian guerrilla Cesare Battisti after he failed to report to police for regular checks.
Battisti, now a widely published crime novelist, faces extradition from France to Italy where he was convicted of murders in the 1970s.
He was one of several dozen former Italian guerrillas living in France under a sanctuary deal offered in 1985 by the late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand.
A Paris court in June approved a request by Rome for his extradition. France's Justice Ministry earlier this month asked for the arrest warrant to be issued after Battisti violated the terms of his parole agreement.
"The justice system cannot accept this type of slap in the face," a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor told the court. "It will aim to do everything in its power for Monsieur Battisti to answer for his actions to Italian justice."
Battisti said in a letter released by his lawyers last week that he planned to stay in France to fight extradition, contradicting reports he had fled the country.
"I am evading judicial checks but I am staying in France, because it is here, with the help of all those who still believe in the justice that has made France the country of human rights, that I will continue to fight for justice to be done," he said.
Battisti said he had been forced to elude the police checks because France's actions automatically condemned him to life in prison for crimes he maintains he did not commit.
His escape has embarrassed French police, who reportedly had him under surveillance when he disappeared, and revived divisions between the ruling conservatives and leftists.
Battisti had been living openly in Paris since 1990 after renouncing terrorism.
President Jacques Chirac said he was awaiting a court appeal before deciding whether to meet Rome's request, but he backed the principle of handing over people convicted of terrorism.
This was a break from previous governments which have respected Mitterrand's amnesty deal, in part because Italians convicted in absentia have no right to a fresh trial, as they do under French law.
Battisti can appeal against the extradition ruling but the process could last months and is considered unlikely to succeed.
His cause has been championed in France by intellectuals and left-wing leaders who sympathise with his class struggle view of politics and insist that Mitterrand's word be respected.
Battisti was convicted of the murders of a prison guard and a butcher and faces life in an Italian jail.
He belonged to a leftist group, the Armed Proletariat for Communism, in the 1970s, an era in Italy when leftist and extreme right groups waged campaigns with bombs and bullets.
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