The Court of Cassation of Italy has decided this Friday not to authorize the extradition to Brazil of former Liberal Party deputy Carla Zambelli, imprisoned in Italian territory since July 2025 and sentenced in her country to ten years in prison for her involvement in a cyberattack against the National Council of Justice.
The judges of the highest Italian judicial instance have annulled the previous ruling of the Court of Appeals of Rome, which had given the green light to the request of the Brazilian authorities for Zambelli to be sent to the South American country, where she was to serve the imposed sentence.
As detailed by the news agency ANSA, the high court has upheld the appeal filed by Zambelli's defense, who holds Italian citizenship and has been in the Rebibbia penitentiary center, located in the northern part of Rome, for almost a year.
Despite this setback for Brazil's request, the Italian Justice is expected to rule next June on another extradition demand related to a second case. In this proceeding, the former parliamentarian was sentenced in August 2025 to five years in prison for pursuing, with a weapon in hand, through the streets of Sao Paulo a follower of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during the 2022 electoral campaign.
According to information from the Brazilian press, Zambelli could be released in the coming days. Along these lines, her mother, Rita Zambelli, stated in a video shared on her social media that she "will be free in Italy tomorrow."
The First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Brazil unanimously convicted Zambelli and hacker Walter Delgatti in May 2025 for a plan to incorporate false data into the official systems of the National Council of Justice, with the aim of questioning the legitimacy of the Brazilian Judiciary. The ruling also included the loss of her seat as a deputy, a position she unsuccessfully tried to retain through an initiative promoted by allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro in Congress.