WWW.USDOJ.GOV

The governments of the United States and Italy have agreed to the transfer of inmate Silvia Baraldini, a 51-year-old Italian national who has been living in the United States since 1961, pursuant to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons (the Strasbourg Convention). Today, Baraldini's consent to the conditions of the transfer was verified at a hearing before United States Magistrate-Judge Michael H. Dolinger in the Southern District of New York.

Baraldini will now be turned over to Italian authorities, who will transport her to Italy to continue serving her sentence. Under the agreement, she will serve the entire sentence imposed on her by the American courts, but will serve the remainder of that sentence in Italy. It was further agreed that she will serve the sentence in a manner that is similar to that under which she would have served her sentence in the United States.

In September 1983, Baraldini was convicted of racketeering and conspiracy under federal Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statutes for her participation in the affairs of a terrorist group. The group committed a series of armed robberies of armored trucks in which two Brinks guards and two Nyack, N.Y., police officers were killed. Baraldini also was convicted of participating in the attempted armed robbery of an armored truck and the breaking out of prison of Joanne Chesimard, a group associate who was serving a life sentence for killing a New Jersey state trooper.

Baraldini was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for those offenses. In a second, subsequent trial, she was convicted of serious criminal contempt and was sentenced to three additional years in prison. With two brief interruptions before her first trial, Baraldini has been in prison since November 1982. She is scheduled for mandatory release in March 2008 based on her accumulated good conduct time credits.

Baraldini has served approximately 16 years of her sentence. Italy has guaranteed that Baraldini will serve the remaining nine years of her sentence if she is transferred to Italy, and has secured the necessary judicial and executive approvals to enforce that guarantee, including the approval of the conditions and confirmation of the sentence by the Italian Court of Appeals in Rome.

This transfer is the result of many years of discussion between the United States and Italy concerning Baraldini. As finally negotiated, the transfer satisfies the two goals of prisoner transfer set out in the Strasbourg Convention: (1) the ends of justice, in that she will serve out her entire United States sentence in a manner comparable to the service of the sentence in the United States, and (2) the social rehabilitation of the prisoner, in that she will serve the remainder of that sentence in Italy close to her family.

The Strasbourg Convention allows a foreign national to transfer to his or her home country to serve the remainder of a sentence imposed by the country in which the foreign national committed an offense.

99-375