Former Italian Red Brigades member escapes house arrest in Argentina while awaiting extradition
Authorities offered a 20 million peso reward as police searched for the former Red Brigades member after he tampered with his ankle monitor.
- On Wednesday, 74-year-old Leonardo Bertulazzi, a former Red Brigades member, escaped house arrest in Buenos Aires by abseiling from his fifth-floor apartment with a harness while awaiting extradition to Italy. A nationwide manhunt is under way.
- Bertulazzi had been awaiting transfer to Italy to serve a 27-year prison sentence for terrorism-related crimes after Argentina's Supreme Court approved his extradition last year. His 2024 arrest ended decades of freedom in the country.
- Police discovered the escape after Bertulazzi tampered with his electronic ankle monitor, placing it inside a device with a thermal blanket and grease to maintain temperature readings. The tampering initially prevented detection of his departure.
- Argentina's Security Ministry offered a $13,000 reward on Tuesday for information leading to Bertulazzi's capture. Government officials condemned the escape, stating "Bertulazzi is responsible for crimes that undermined democratic values and the lives of many victims."
- Bertulazzi's history links him to Italy's violent 1970s period: he participated in the 1977 kidnapping of Italian naval engineer Pietro Costa, held for 81 days, and aided logistics for the 1978 abduction of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro.
55 Articles
55 Articles
74-year-old Leonardo Bertulazzi, a former member of the Italian terrorist group Red Brigades, escaped while under house arrest. The man managed to evade the authorities for years, while facing a 27-year prison sentence in Italy. When he was finally apprehended in Argentina and faced extradition to Italy, he decided to orchestrate an escape. Bertulazzi removed his ankle monitor, tampered with it to avoid arousing suspicion from the authorities, …
Associated Press News
Former Italian Red Brigades member escapes house arrest in Argentina while awaiting extradition
Leonardo Bertulazzi, 74, a former member of Italy’s Red Brigades, escaped house arrest in Buenos Aires as he awaited extradition to Italy to serve a 27-year prison sentence.
A 74-year-old Italian man who was being kept under house arrest in Argentina is reported on the run-after having recalled from the fifth-floor Buenos Aires apartment where he was staying. The BBC reports Leonardo Bertulazzi, who was convicted in absentia for a 1977 kidnapping that helped fund the abduction...
A 74-year-old Italian convicted of kidnapping escapes house arrest in Argentina by rappelling down from a balcony. A 74-year-old Italian convicted of a kidnapping committed by a far-left militant group in the 1970s has escaped while under house arrest in Argentina and is currently on the run. Leonardo Bertulazzi used a safety device (belt) to rappel down from a fifth-floor balcony in the capital Buenos Aires, foreign media write, according to Te…
The Italian court had requested his extradition to serve a 27-year prison sentence imposed in 1987 by subversive association and membership of an armed gang. Bertulazzi, 74, was under house arrest since August 2024 in the Argentine capital. The Ministry of Security offered on Wednesday a reward of 20 million pesos (about $13,000) for information for his recapture, according to a provision published in the official bulletin. Bertulazzi belonged t…
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