this became known as the "Mitterrand doctrine". Many Italian political activists had fled to France during the 1970s-1980s. Trusting in this declaration, Battisti returned to France in 1990, where he was arrested at Italy's request in 1991, when his sentence was confirmed in the Court of Cassation. He thus passed five months in Fresnes prison and then was freed after the extradition request was rejected by the Paris Appeal Court on 29 May 1991. French justice concluded that the anti-terrorist legislation enacted in Italy "went against the French principles of law," which, along with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), prohibited in particular extradition of a person sentenced in absentia if that person had not been in a condition to adequately defend himself during his trial. The court also declared the evidence against Battisti as "contradictory" and "worthy of a military justice." After his release in 1991, Battisti lived in Paris, where he wrote his first novel, Les Habits d'ombre ("The shadow clothes"). Two thrillers, L'Ombre rouge ("The red shadow") and Buena onda ("Good wave"), took as their setting and backdrop the Parisian world of Italian fugitives from justice. Another major novel, titled Dernières cartouches ("Last bullets"), takes place in Italy during the "years of lead". In 1997, jointly with other left-wing Italians who had fled to France and were accused of taking part in violent crimes, he asked without success the President of Italy at the time, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (DC), for amnesty. Diplomatic dispute between France and Italy Over the years, Italy asked France several times to arrest and extradite left-wing Italians involved in court cases connected with political violence in Italy who had fled to France. On 11 September 2002, the extradition of Battisti and others was again requested during a meeting in Paris between Italy's Minister of Justice Roberto Castelli and France's Minister of Justice Dominique Perben. Arrest in France On 10 February 2004, the French government arrested Battisti at Italy's request and planned to extradite him to Italy. On 30 June 2004, the Paris Court of Appeal approved his extradition. An appeal to the Court of Cassation was filed against this opinion and another to the Conseil d'État against the extradition decree. President Jacques Chirac stated on 2 July 2004 that he would not oppose the French justice system's decision to extradite him. Perben confirmed Paris' new position: "There is no ambiguity. There has