Brazil

Ultra-conservative Brazilian MP Carla Zambelli on the run in Rome

Right-wing MP Carla Zambelli, convicted in Brazil, takes refuge in Rome, raising diplomatic questions

5 June 2025

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Key points

Carla Zambelli, what can happen now

2' min read

The ultra-conservative deputy, Carla Zambelli (Pl), a pasionary of former President Jair Bolsonaro's party, told Brazil's main media that she had arrived in Rome.

The parliamentarian, searched by Interpol, has Italian citizenship, as do Bolsonaro's children.

The woman was sentenced to ten years in prison in Brazil for hacking into the computer system of the National Council of Justice.

The MEP, who had left the South American country after her conviction on 14 May, said she landed in the Italian capital on a flight from Miami.

According to observers, the case has delicate political elements for bilateral Italy-Brazil relations, which somehow evoke the Battisti dossier.

Sources heard by Ansa confirm Zambelli's arrival in Italy.

In the last few hours, Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes had described Zambelli's flight, which left for Florida immediately after his conviction, as 'unequivocally aimed at evading Brazilian justice', and had ordered the freezing of his assets, bank accounts and social media profiles, requesting the intervention of Interpol.

At the time of her release from the country, the sentence imposed on the MP, which also includes the loss of her parliamentary mandate at the end of the arrest proceedings, was not yet enforceable and she was not subject to any precautionary measures.

According to reconstructions, the woman landed in Rome a few hours before her name was added to the Interpol red list of wanted persons.

Carla Zambelli, what can happen now

However, it is pointed out that an Interpol red alert is not a binding international arrest warrant, but a request for arrest for extradition purposes.

The Italian authorities may proceed with the provisional arrest of a person subject to a red notice, but only with the go-ahead of the Procura Generale at the competent Court of Appeal.

And if the person is also an Italian citizen, like Zambelli, Italy does not normally allow extradition.

According to Italian law, extradition is prohibited for its citizens, unless provided for by an international treaty. Zambelli could be provisionally arrested, but will not automatically be extradited.

The Member of Parliament, who already has other convictions against her, was found guilty of hacking and ideological forgery, and was allegedly the mastermind behind the hacking to issue a false arrest warrant against Judge Alexandre de Moraes.