Law catches up with Battisti

MILAN: Italian former leftist guerrilla Cesare Battisti, who has been on the run for almost four decades after being jailed for murder, has been arrested in Bolivia and is expected to be extradited to Italy, officials said yesterday.

“He will soon arrive in Brazil and from here will be transferred to Italy to serve a life sentence,” Filipe G Martins, a senior aide on international affairs to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, tweeted.

A plane carrying Italian police and intelligence officers is already on its way to South America, Italy’s Interior Ministry said.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, told television he hoped Battisti would be in Italy by the middle of the week.

Battisti, 64, faces life in prison in his home country, where he was convicted of four murders committed in the 1970s. He escaped from prison in 1981 and lived in France before fleeing to Brazil to avoid being extradited.

Battisti, who has a 5-year-old Brazilian son, spent years in Brazil, backed by former left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

However, Bolsonaro, who took office this month, has pledged to send him back to Italy. |