Argentina’s Security Ministry has offered 20 million pesos for information leading to the former Red Brigades member’s capture after his escape while awaiting extradition to Italy.
Leonardo Bertulazzi escaped house arrest in Buenos Aires on 10 November while awaiting extradition to Italy. Argentine police officials told The Associated Press that he remained on the run on 11 November, as authorities searched nationwide.
Argentina’s Supreme Court had rejected his final appeal, and the country approved his extradition in July 2025. The handover had not taken place when he escaped. Argentina’s Security Ministry has offered 20 million pesos for information leading to his capture.
According to police officials quoted by The Associated Press in Al Jazeera, Bertulazzi used a rope and harness to descend from his fifth-floor apartment to a neighboring terrace. He then climbed down to another terrace, crossed a vacant lot and climbed over a gate to reach the street.
The officials said he delayed detection by placing his electronic ankle monitor inside a device with a thermal blanket to maintain its temperature and grease or animal fat apparently intended to retain moisture. Officials became suspicious when the monitor remained stationary; police entered the apartment and found the device but not Bertulazzi.
Bertulazzi, 74, belonged to the Genoa branch of the Red Brigades, a far-left armed group responsible for kidnappings and killings in Italy. He was convicted in absentia for the 1977 kidnapping of naval engineer Pietro Costa, which the Genoa branch carried out. His combined 27-year Italian prison sentence is for abduction, subversive association and belonging to an armed group.
Argentine authorities have separately said Bertulazzi was involved in the logistics of the kidnapping of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, whom the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed in 1978.
The president’s party proposes 6% annual growth by 2031, 28,000 more military personnel, 50,000 police officers, 200,000 affordable homes and available electricity generation toward 10,000 MW.
After Bertulazzi’s arrest in Buenos Aires in November 2002, an Argentine judge rejected Italy’s extradition request in 2003 because Italian law did not guarantee him a new trial after his conviction in absentia. Argentina granted him refugee status in 2004, revoked it in 2024 and rearrested him that August.
Italian Interior Ministry undersecretary Wanda Ferro said Argentine police were responsible for ensuring Bertulazzi’s handover. She said she hoped extradition could happen very quickly if he is recaptured; he would then serve his existing sentence in Italy.
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