Leonardo Bertulazzi, former member of the Red Brigades, being arrested by Argentinian police in Buenos Aires on 29 August 2024. Photograph: Argentina's security ministry/AFP/Getty ImagesLeonardo Bertulazzi, former member of the Red Brigades, being arrested by Argentinian police in Buenos Aires on 29 August 2024. Photograph: Argentina's security ministry/AFP/Getty ImagesEx-member of radical Marxist group scales balcony, escapes house arrest in Argentina74-year-old Leonardo Bertulazzi, awaiting extradition to Italy, reportedly used harness to flee custody
A 74-year-old former member of Italy’s radical Marxist group the Red Brigades has escaped from house arrest in Argentina, the country’s security ministry confirmed on Wednesday, after he reportedly hid his ankle monitor inside a tube of pork and lowered himself from a fifth-floor balcony.
Authorities placed Leonardo Bertulazzi under house arrest in Buenos Aires in 2024, prior to his extradition to Italy to serve a 27-year prison sentence. He had received the sentence in 1987 for joining a subversive association and belonging to an armed group.
After years on the run, Bertulazzi was first arrested by Argentine authorities in 2002. He was freed a few months later and secured refugee status in 2004, but was arrested again in 2024 after it was revoked.
On Wednesday, Argentina’s security ministry offered a $13,000 reward for information leading to Bertulazzi’s recapture after he slipped out of detention.
Note from Aldo Moro kidnappers sells for €26,000 at controversial auctionRead moreThe fugitive held a senior position in the Red Brigades, a radical Marxist organization responsible for attacks between 1969 and 1980, dubbed Italy’s “Years of Lead”. The group most notoriously kidnapped and assassinated former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978.
Security footage showed Bertulazzi dropping from a building into a public road as cars drove past.
A detective tracking the former member of the Red Brigades reportedly told La Nación that Bertulazzi rappelled down from the fifth floor using a harness.
“First, he removed his electronic ankle monitor and placed it in a tube filled with pork, along with a blood pressure monitor to maintain the temperature. He then climbed on to a roof and, using a rope, lowered himself five meters until he jumped onto a vacant lot behind the building where he lived, and then scaled a metal gate to reach the street,” the detective said, according to the publication.
The footage, which indicated the time was 6.01am on 10 November, showed a possibly shaken Bertulazzi sitting down to rest for a few moments.
Police noticed his ankle monitor had stopped transmitting movement data and headed to the house, where they found the device discarded and Bertulazzi nowhere to be found.
Argentina approved his extradition to Italy in July 2025 after the country’s supreme court rejected a final appeal.
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