PARIS, Aug 24 (AFP) - Cesare Battisti, an Italian former revolutionary fighting extradition from France to face jail for murder, has reportedly fled his adopted homeland, enraging Italian officials, a French paper said Tuesday.
Battisti, a darling of France's left-wing political and intellectual establishment, has been outside the country for possibly 10 days and at least since the start of last week, the left-leaning daily Liberation reported.
The former left-wing extremist, who was convicted in absentia in Italy for four murders and whose extradition from France is currently being held up on appeal, missed his weekly check-in with French parole officers at the weekend.
Liberation, which did not cite the source for its story, offered no suggestions as to where Battisti may have fled. The conservative daily Le Figaro reported only that Battisti's whereabouts were unclear.
This means he has managed to escape the watchful eyes of police officers "who have been following him 24 hours a day", Liberation said, adding that his answering machine was full of messages and his automatic reply had changed.
Battisti, a cult figure who works as a concierge in Paris and has also earned a name as a successful crime writer, was released from prison in March pending a new appeals hearing on condition he reported to police once a week.
The former member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism fled to France in 1990, benefitting from a policy of then Socialist president Francois Mitterrand under which Italian left-wing extremists could stay in France if they renounced their extremist past.
Three years later Battisti was convicted in absentia by a court in Milan for carrying out or planning four murders in 1978 and 1979, including the killing of a prison guard in the town of Udine and of a policeman in Milan.
The Paris appeals court, which in June ruled in favor of his extradition, will next Monday review a request by prosecutors to revoke his conditional release and could issue an arrest warrant that day, court sources said.
Until a warrant is issued, Le Figaro reported, Battisti cannot be arrested or placed in preventive detention. He could only be held for four hours for an identity check, but police would then be forced to release him, the paper said.
In Italy, right-wing politicians lashed out at Paris for seemingly allowing Battisti to slip through their fingers, but Justice Minister Roberto Castelli refrained from directly criticizing Italy's neighbor and EU partner.
Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoni, quoted in the Italian press, accused France of "complicity for having allowed the perpetrator of several crimes to flee, with the participation of those who have backed a criminal of the worst kind."
Castelli, who like Calderoni is a member of the right-wing Northern League, hit out at the European left for supporting Battisti and for defending "an aberrant culture, a culture of death."
But he did not blame the French government, saying that France's laws of presumption of innocence were the same as Italy's and that he respected the judgment of the court in allowing Battisti's conditional release.
Paris deputy mayor and Greens party member Penelope Komites, a staunch defender of Battisti, told AFP that she had not heard from him in 10 days and had left many messages on his machine that had gone unanswered.
Writer Fred Vargas, another Battisti backer, told France Inter radio that the Italian had been "psychologically destroyed by the media campaign that depicted him as a monster" and that he was in "palpable distress".
French Justice Minister Dominique Perben, in a statement, deemed the comments of those backing Battisti "distressing and a sign of irresponsibility".