ROME – Convicted Italian terrorist Cesare Battisti, who spent almost four decades on the run, has been extradited to Italy following his arrest in Bolivia on January 12. 

 Battisti, 64, a former member of Italian far-left terrorist group Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) during Italy’s infamous anni di piombo (Years of Lead) was arrested in 1979 following an investigation into the murder of a jeweller. Sentenced to jail in 1981 for belonging to the outlawed PAC group, he escaped from prison near Rome only a few months after incarceration, fleeing to France, and then Mexico in 1982.

 It was the Mitterrand doctrine, a policy established in 1985 by then French President Francois Mitterrand, that offered left-wing Italian terrorists who had “renounced violence,” a safe haven in France. This paved the way for Battisti to return to France in 1990, where he forged a writing career.

 In 1993, a Milan court convicted Battisti in absentia of killing two Italian policemen, taking part in the murder of a butcher and helping plan the slaying of a Milan jeweller.

 Despite Italy’s repeated demands for Battisti’s extradition, the Italian fugitive fled France in favour of Brazil in October 2004 under the protection of former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

 Arrested in Rio de Janeiro in 2007, Italy once again called for extradition but in 2009 the fugitive was granted political asylum in Brazil. In 2010 Lula (who is currently in prison for corruption) issued a decree refusing Battisti’s extradition to Italy. But newly appointed far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsanaro promised to return Battisti to Italy. On the run once again, Battisti fled to neighbouring Bolivia, where he was arrested by an Interpol team on Saturday while disguised in a false beard and moustache.

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