Leonardo Bertulazzi escaped from his fifth-floor residence using a harness, having rigged his electronic ankle monitor to fake continuous body temperature readings. Authorities only realized he was gone after observing that the stationary device was no longer registering physical movement, prompting an initial deployment of explosives experts to inspect the altered monitor. The escape disrupts plans by President Javier Milei's administration to return the former militant to Italy following decades of refuge in South America.
Key points
A nationwide manhunt is underway across Argentina for the convicted Italian militant foll…: A nationwide manhunt is underway across Argentina for the convicted Italian militant following his escape from house arrest.
Bertulazzi faced imminent extradition after Argentine courts rejected his final appeal ag…: Bertulazzi faced imminent extradition after Argentine courts rejected his final appeal against returning to Italy.
The fugitive had previously lived freely for two decades in Argentina under refugee statu…: The fugitive had previously lived freely for two decades in Argentina under refugee status before his 2024 re-arrest.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
- Published
A 74-year-old Italian man who was found guilty of a kidnapping carried out by a far-left militant group in the 1970s has escaped while under house arrest in Argentina and is on the run.
Leonardo Bertulazzi used a harness to abseil down from a fifth-floor balcony in the capital, Buenos Aires.
His escape was not immediately registered because he had tampered with his electronic ankle monitor so that it continued to transmit body temperature measurements even after he had prised it open and absconded.
Bertulazzi already spent decades as a fugitive after he was sentenced in absentia in Italy for the 1977 kidnapping of Italian naval engineer Pietro Costa.
He was awaiting extradition to Italy and was being monitored by the Argentine ministry of security through an ankle tag which registers the wearer's body temperature and movements.
Officials said that they had become suspicious when they noticed that the tag had remained stationary.
When they entered the fifth-floor apartment in the centre of Buenos Aires, Bertulazzi was gone, but the ankle monitor remained.
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