In a brazen escape that has stunned authorities, a 74-year-old Italian man convicted of kidnapping for a far-left militant group in the 1970s has fled house arrest in Argentina by abseiling from a fifth-floor balcony in Buenos Aires.
Leonardo Bertulazzi, who was awaiting extradition to Italy, used a harness to descend from the apartment in the capital's center. His disappearance went unnoticed at first because he had tampered with his electronic ankle monitor to keep it transmitting body temperature readings even after he removed it, according to officials.
A Fugitive's Long History
Bertulazzi was sentenced in absentia in Italy for the 1977 kidnapping of Italian naval engineer Pietro Costa. He had been a member of the Red Brigades, a Marxist guerrilla group responsible for numerous kidnappings and killings of state officials in the 1970s and 1980s.
He first arrived in Argentina in 2002 using a false passport and was arrested. However, he was granted refugee status in 2004 and lived freely in the country until his re-arrest in 2024 under the government of President Javier Milei. The Argentine authorities had been monitoring him via an ankle tag that tracked his movements and body temperature.
Suspicion arose when officials noticed that the tag had remained stationary. Upon entering the apartment, they found Bertulazzi gone but the monitor left behind. Fearing that the device might be rigged to explode due to Bertulazzi's known bomb-making skills, police called in explosives experts. They discovered that he had tampered with it only to prevent the alarm from sounding when removed.
Imminent Extradition
Italian media report that his extradition had been imminent after his final appeal was rejected. The Milei government had stated that Bertulazzi was responsible for crimes that undermined democratic values and affected many victims.
Bertulazzi was part of the Red Brigades' Genoa section that kidnapped Pietro Costa on the street and held him for 81 days before receiving a large ransom. The proceeds were used to buy a flat in Rome, which was later used in 1978 for the Red Brigades' most notorious crime: the kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Moro was abducted when his car was ambushed on the way to parliament and was held in the flat for 54 days before being shot and his body abandoned in the trunk of a Renault car in central Rome.
The escape has raised questions about security measures for high-profile prisoners in Argentina. Authorities have launched a manhunt for Bertulazzi, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
