Left-wing Italian terrorist Cesare Battisti captured in Bolivia

Left-wing Italian terrorist Cesare Battisti, who was on the run from Brazilian authorities, has been captured in Bolivia, an adviser to President Jair Bolsonaro said Friday. Battisti, a founding member of far-left Italian radical group Armed Proletarians for Communism, was convicted in absentia in 1993 of four political killings committed in the 1970s and sentenced to life in prison. The 63-year-old has maintained his innocence.

Battisti was detained late Saturday in Bolivia “and will be soon brought to Brazil, from where he will probably be sent to Italy to serve a life sentence,” tweeted Filipe Martins.

DW reports ” Bolsonaro, who was inaugurated this month, had previously expressed his intention to allow Battisti’s extradition as a “little gift.” The Brazilian government, then under former leftist President Luiz Inacio,  refused an extradition request in 2011.

Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a lawmaker in the Chamber of Deputies, praised the arrest on Twitter.

“Brazil is no longer the land of outlaws. @matteosalvinimi, the ‘little gift’ is on his way,” he wrote addressing Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.”