Red Brigades Terrorist Leonardo Bertulazzi Escapes from House Arrest in Buenos Aires
Leonardo Bertulazzi, former member of the Italian Red Brigades, escaped from his house arrest in San Telmo while awaiting extradition to Italy by descending from a balcony using a harness.
Escape of former Red Brigades member from his apartment in San Telmo
Leonardo Bertulazzi, 74 years old and former member of the Italian Red Brigades, escaped from his house arrest in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of San Telmo, according to confirmation by clarin.com citing official sources. The man descended using a harness from the balcony of the apartment where he was serving the precautionary measure whilst awaiting extradition to Italy.
The escape occurred shortly after Argentine courts rejected the final appeal presented by his defence lawyer, Rodolfo Yanzon, against the extradition proceedings.
Bertulazzi was a member of the Genoa column of the Red Brigades during the 1970s and was linked to the logistics of the kidnapping of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978. Italian justice convicted him definitively to 27 years in prison for the kidnapping of industrialist Pietro Costa and for membership in an armed organisation.
He had remained a fugitive in South America for 44 years until he was arrested in Buenos Aires in 2024, as a result of joint work by the Ministry of Security, Criminal Intelligence, the Ministry of Justice, and the Vice-Directorship of the Interior Cabinet.
During his residence in the Argentine capital, Bertulazzi had obtained the status of political refugee, a condition that authorities revoked in 2024, thereby enabling the path towards his extradition.
Source: Google News AR — Buenos Aires