A former leading member of the Italian Red Brigades, Leonardo Bertulazzi, was arrested on Thursday in Argentina, according to Italian authorities.
He was detained following a decision by Buenos Aires to revoke the refugee status he had obtained in 2004.
Italy had made repeated requests for the extradition of Bertulazzi, who is the subject of an international arrest warrant for murder, terrorist attacks, and kidnapping.
Bertulazzi, who is in his 70s, was a member of the Genoese '28 March' section of the Red Brigades, known for kidnapping and holding a ship-owner for ransom. In 1987, he was sentenced to a combined prison term of 27 years for involvement in subversion and being part of an armed group.
Bertulazzi had previously been arrested in Buenos Aires in 2002, but was released just a few months later.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni issued an official statement expressing her “deep gratitude to the Argentine authorities” for his arrest, .
Founded in 1973 by Italian Renato Curcio and promoting Marxist-Leninist ideology, the Red Brigades were responsible for injuring or killing dozens of judges, politicians, journalists and industrialists during the 1970s.
