Java Integer.ParseInt translation to python

[jose isaias cabrera]

Ok, so this,

>> buffer[0] = (byte)Integer.parseInt(string,16);

in java is, partly, this

buffer[0] = int(string, 16)

in python.  But here is my problem.  When I call this java subroutine,

  byte[] decodeKey(String inString)
  {
    if (inString == null)
            return null;

    System.out.println("StringLength = " + inString.length());
    byte[] retBuf = new byte[inString.length()/2];
    // The string has two hex characters per byte.
    for (int index = 0; index < retBuf.length; index++)
    {
      System.out.print(inString.substring(2*index, 2*index+2));
      System.out.println(" " +
        Integer.parseInt(inString.substring(2*index, 2*index+2), 16) + " " +
        (byte)Integer.parseInt(inString.substring(2*index, 2*index+2), 16));
      retBuf[index] =
        (byte)Integer.parseInt(inString.substring(2*index, 2*index+2), 16);
    }
    System.out.println(retBuf);

    return retBuf;
  }

I get this output:
StringLength = 40
c1 193 -63
7c 124 124
e1 225 -31
86 134 -122
ab 171 -85
94 148 -108
ee 238 -18
b0 176 -80
de 222 -34
8a 138 -118
e3 227 -29
b5 181 -75
b7 183 -73
51 81 81
a7 167 -89
c4 196 -60
d8 216 -40
e9 233 -23
ed 237 -19
eb 235 -21
[B at 1616c7

But, here is what I have for python,

def PrepareHash(HashStr):
  while len(HashStr) > 0:
    byte = HashStr[0:2]
    print byte,int(byte,16),byte(int(byte,16)) # & 0xff
    HashStr = HashStr[2:]
  return byte

def Main():
  HashStr = "c17ce186ab94eeb0de8ae3b5b751a7c4d8e9edeb"
  HashStr = PrepareHash(HashStr)
  print "Prepared HashStr :",HashStr

Main()

and it results to,

mulo 19:32:06-> python test.py
c1 193 Á
7c 124 |
e1 225 á
86 134
ab 171 «
94 148
ee 238 î
b0 176 °
de 222 Þ
8a 138
e3 227 ã
b5 181 µ
b7 183 ·
51 81 Q
a7 167 §
c4 196 Ä
d8 216 Ø
e9 233 é
ed 237 í
eb 235 ë

which is not even close, and yes, I know that it's not the same code.  So, 
the question is, how can I make this java (byte) call in python? so that the 
result would be the right one, "[B at 1616c7"

Thanks.

josé