Police in Argentina have arrested a former Red Brigades member who has spent more than 40 years on the run from the justice system in Italy, where he is wanted for crimes including kidnapping and criminal association that he allegedly committed as part of the far-left guerrilla group.
Leonardo Bertulazzi had been living in Argentina for years as a refugee, a status he lost under the administration of the country’s radical rightwing president, Javier Milei. He was previously sentenced in absentia to 27 years in prison, and Italian police officers were present in Buenos Aires during his capture.
The Red Brigades was responsible for dozens of deaths in violent attacks during Italy’s “Years of Lead” in the 1970s and 80s, including the kidnapping and killing of the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.
“Bertulazzi is responsible for crimes that undermined democratic values and the lives of many victims,” the Argentinian government said in a statement.
A fugitive since 1980, Bertulazzi was found guilty of participating in the kidnapping of the naval engineer Piero Costa in Genoa in January 1977. Costa, a member of one of the wealthiest Genoese ship-owning families, was abducted near his home in Castelletto, with two armed men seizing him and pushing him into the passenger seat of a Fiat 132.
Initially, a ransom of 10bn lire was demanded, but negotiations with the Costa family led to a reduction of the demand to 1.5bn lire. The payment was made and Costa was released in early April 1977, bound hand and foot.
According to investigators, the kidnapping of Costa was aimed at obtaining financial means to subsidise terrorist activities; 50m lire was allegedly used to buy the apartment in Rome where Moro was held prisoner during his kidnapping. Moro’s bullet-riddled body was found in 1978 in the boot of a car parked in Rome 55 days after his kidnapping.
Bertulazzi had been at the centre of a complex legal situation that allowed him to live as a free man despite being wanted in Italy and with everyone knowing his whereabouts. He was arrested in 2002 in Buenos Aires after a joint investigation with Interpol, but was released eight months later because his Italian trials had been held in absentia, preventing his extradition.
The government of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, welcomed the news of his arrest. “The arrest of the fugitive member of the Red Brigades was made possible through an intense and fruitful collaboration among the Italian judicial authorities, Argentine officials and Interpol,” a statement said.
Italian authorities do not expect his imminent return to Italy. Bertulazzi’s lawyers have filed an appeal against the decision of the Argentine commission for refugees to revoke his refugee status, and even if that is rejected, the extradition process could be prolonged.
