Kidnapper, 74, escapes from house arrest in Argentina by abseiling from balcony
Leonardo Bertulazzi, a 74-year-old former militant convicted of kidnapping, escaped house arrest in Buenos Aires by abseiling from his apartment. He had been awaiting extradition to Italy before tampering with his electronic monitor to facilitate his flight.
Why it matters
The escape highlights security lapses in house arrest monitoring and complicates international extradition efforts for historical crimes.
Image source, AFP via Getty Images Image caption, Leonardo Bertulazzi was first arrested in Buenos Aires in 2002
A 74-year-old Italian man who was found guilty of a kidnapping carried out by a far-left militant group in the 1970s has escaped while under house arrest in Argentina and is on the run.
Leonardo Bertulazzi used a harness to abseil down from a fifth-floor balcony in the capital, Buenos Aires.
His escape was not immediately registered because he had tampered with his electronic ankle monitor so that it continued to transmit body temperature measurements even after he had prised it open and absconded.
Bertulazzi already spent decades as a fugitive after he was sentenced in absentia in Italy for the 1977 kidnapping of Italian naval engineer Pietro Costa.
Also covering this story
One other newsroom covered this event. We read that version too.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in