Italian fugitive captured 3 decades after conviction

ROME — A left-wing Italian militant who was convicted of murder in his home country nearly three decades ago was arrested in Bolivia, authorities said on Sunday, setting the stage for a climactic end to one of Italy’s longest-running efforts to bring a fugitive to justice.

Hours later, Cesare Battisti was handed over to Italian custody, officials said, and he left on a plane carrying him back to Italy to serve a life sentence.

He was captured by Bolivian and Italian officers in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, where he was located by intelligence agents after using one of his mobile devices, Italian police and RAI state television said.

The 64-year-old had lived openly in Brazil for years and enjoyed the protection of some parties on both sides of the Atlantic. But Brazil’s outgoing president signed a decree last month ordering his extradition, apparently sparking Battisti’s latest effort to flee.

Italian police released a video of Battisti that they said was taken hours before his capture, showing him seemingly oblivious to surveillance cameras tracking him as he walked casually down the street in jeans, a blue T-shirt and sunglasses.

“Cesare Battisti’s long flight is over,” Justice Minister Alfonso Buonafede declared, adding that he would be taken to Rome’s Rebibbia prison as soon as he landed in Italy.

Battisti escaped from an Italian prison in 1981 while awaiting trial on four counts of murder allegedly committed when he was a member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism. He was convicted in absentia in 1990 and faces a life term for the deaths of two police officers, a jeweler and a butcher.

He acknowledged membership in the group but denied killing anyone.