Cesare Battisti belonged to the Proletari armati per il comunismo (Armed Proletarians for Communism, known as the PAC), an armed group that was active in northern Italy in 1978 and 1979 and was outlawed by the Italian state. Italian courts convicted him of four murders. Antonio Santoro died in Udine on June 6, 1978. Pierluigi Torregiani died in Milan and Lino Sabbadin near Venice on the same day, February 16, 1979. Andrea Campagna died in Milan on April 19, 1979. The courts found that Battisti carried out two of the killings himself and took part in planning or carrying out the other two. The sentence was life imprisonment.
By the time the final verdicts were reached he was no longer in Italy. Arrested in Milan in 1979 and convicted of belonging to the group, he escaped from custody in October 1981 and lived abroad for almost four decades: in Mexico, then in France, where he wrote crime novels, and finally in Brazil. Italy asked for his return again and again. French courts and governments, Brazilian ministers, presidents and a Supreme Court, and finally the authorities of Bolivia each took decisions that shaped whether he would be sent back, and for years the answer was no.
He was arrested in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on January 12, 2019 and landed in Rome two days later. In March 2019 he told a Milan prosecutor that he accepted responsibility for the four killings, ending a denial that had lasted since the 1980s. In 2019 the Milan appeal court and the Court of Cassation both refused to reduce his life sentence. As of June 2026 he was still serving it in Italy and was pursuing, through his lawyer, requests for leave from custody that the courts had so far refused.
Battisti was born on December 18, 1954 in Cisterna di Latina, south of Rome. He left school in the early 1970s. His first arrest came in 1972 on a robbery charge in Frascati, and a second in 1974 on charges that included robbery in Sabaudia. In 1976 he moved to Milan, where he took part in criminal activity, and he was arrested again that year and held in custody in north-eastern Italy. There, in 1976 or 1977, he met a figure who was associated with the people who founded the PAC and who was later described as the group's ideologue.
The PAC grew out of the autonomist movement of Lombardy and the Veneto. Its early concern was the Italian penal system and the treatment of detained militants, and its first members organized local committees to monitor conditions for them. After his release Battisti was introduced to the clandestine scene in Milan and became active in the group in 1977. He remained so for about two years. The charge of belonging to an armed gang, which Italian courts used against the members, sat alongside the charges of murder brought against some of them. Between late 1979 and early 1980 most of the leading members were arrested in operations across Lombardy and the Veneto. Several of them later dissociated themselves from the group and received reduced sentences under an Italian law of 1982 that rewarded renunciation of armed activity.
The period in which the PAC operated is known in Italy as the Years of Lead, a stretch of political violence that ran from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. The historian Marc Lazar has estimated that more than 400 people died in it, and he has described the violence as an escalation between far-right and far-left groups. The Red Brigades kidnapped and murdered the former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978, the same year as the first of the deaths for which Battisti was convicted.
Antonio Santoro was 51 when he died in Udine, in north-eastern Italy, on June 6, 1978. The Italian courts that examined the case found that Battisti was one of two members of the group who carried out the killing, and convicted him of murder for it. Other members of the group were convicted as organizers. Santoro was the first of the four people whose deaths led to Battisti's conviction, and the only one to die in 1978.
On February 16, 1979 two men died in two different places. Pierluigi Torregiani died in Milan. Lino Sabbadin, who was 45, died in the area of Santa Maria di Sala and Mestre, near Venice. The two killings were connected, and the courts treated them as parts of one action by the PAC.
In the Torregiani case the trial established that other members of the group carried out the act, and Battisti was convicted as one of the people who planned and organized it. In the Sabbadin case the man who carried out the killing was a different member of the group, and Battisti was convicted as a participant in it. Torregiani's son, who was a minor at the time, survived.
Andrea Campagna was in his twenties when he died in Milan on April 19, 1979. The courts held that Battisti was the person who carried out this killing, and he was convicted of murder for it. It was the last of the four deaths, and it came about two months before Battisti's arrest.
Italian police arrested Battisti in Milan on June 26, 1979, in one of a series of operations against the group. He was convicted that year of belonging to the PAC, an outlawed armed group, and he was held in custody to await trial for the killings. On October 4, 1981 he escaped, with help from members of the group who had remained free.
The trials for the killings went on without him. In 1988, as the French Ministry of Justice summarized the proceedings in February 2004, the Milan assize court sentenced him to life imprisonment, in his absence, for two homicides, for helping to organize two others, and for related offenses including criminal association and handling stolen goods. The ministry noted that he had voluntarily evaded Italian justice but had been represented by a lawyer at each trial. In 1993 the Milan appeal court confirmed the conviction. Italian authorities state that the sentence became final in 1993 and that seven final judgments, reached by 24 Italian judges, established his guilt.
After the escape Battisti lived for roughly a decade in Mexico. In 1990 he went to France. France at that time followed what is called the Mitterrand doctrine, a policy announced in 1985 under President François Mitterrand under which Italian militants who had renounced violence were not handed back to Italy. Battisti settled in Paris and wrote thrillers there until 2004.
Italy tried to have him returned in 1991. It made two requests to the French government, and the French court that examined them, the indictments chamber, rejected both on grounds of defective form. On May 29, 1991 the Paris Court of Appeal issued two rulings declaring him not extraditable. The matter then rested until January 2003.
In January 2003 Italy submitted a new request covering the same facts. On February 10, 2004 Battisti was arrested in Paris and placed in extradition detention. A petition with 23,000 signatures asked France not to extradite him. On March 3, 2004 he was released under judicial supervision, pending the court's decision.
On June 30, 2004 the Paris Court of Appeal approved Italy's request. He appealed, and lost. In August 2004 he stopped reporting to the police under the terms of his supervision and went into hiding. On October 23, 2004 the French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, signed the extradition decree in his absence. Battisti's lawyers took the case to the European Court of Human Rights in 2005, and in 2006 the court declared his complaint inadmissible. By then he was living in Brazil.
Brazilian police arrested Battisti in Rio de Janeiro in March 2007, and Italy at once requested his extradition. In January 2009 the Brazilian Justice Minister, Tarso Genro, granted him refugee status, which stopped the proceedings. The refugee committee had earlier refused it.
In November 2009 the Supreme Federal Tribunal voted 5 to 4 that Battisti had not been persecuted in his trial in Italy, and that the refuge was therefore unlawful. The court authorized extradition but left the final decision to the president. On December 31, 2010, the last day of his term, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva refused it. Italy challenged the refusal before the Supreme Court. On June 8, 2011 the court voted 6 to 3 that Lula's decision had complied with the extradition treaty between the two countries and 6 to 3 that Italy had no standing to contest it, and it ordered Battisti's release. He left detention early on June 9, 2011. Judge Luiz Fux, who would later sign the order for his arrest, said in the debate: "At stake here is national sovereignty. It is as simple as that." Italy's youth minister at the time, Giorgia Meloni, called the ruling a slap in the face for Italian institutions.
Battisti remained in Brazil, in the coastal town of Cananéia, about 260 kilometers from São Paulo. In October 2017 he was stopped near the Bolivian border carrying about 7,500 dollars in undeclared cash and was released after a few days. Italy had by then asked President Michel Temer to revoke the decision not to extradite him, and the Supreme Court received a preventive habeas corpus petition from his lawyers in the same month. In November 2018 the Attorney General, Raquel Dodge, argued to the court that the judiciary could not review a refusal to extradite but that a president could reverse it as a matter of political convenience.
Jair Bolsonaro had campaigned on a promise to send Battisti back to Italy. On December 13, 2018, with Bolsonaro due to take office on January 1, Justice Fux revoked the earlier habeas corpus order and ordered Battisti's arrest for extradition, on the basis of a request from Interpol and of Federal Police findings about the cash found in 2017. Fux held that neither he nor the court should decide the extradition itself, which belonged to the president, and that the refusal of 2010 had not given Battisti an acquired right to remain in Brazil. On December 14 Temer decided to extradite him. When the Federal Police tried to locate him in Cananéia he could not be found.
His lawyers told the court that he had no conviction in Brazil and faced no money-laundering charge there. On December 21, 2018 Battisti formally applied for asylum in Bolivia. That request had not been answered when he was arrested.
Italian authorities located him in Santa Cruz, Bolivia's largest city, in the week before January 12, 2019, and an operation was prepared with the Bolivian authorities. He was arrested on January 12 by a joint Italian and Bolivian team. The Bolivian Minister of Government, Carlos Romero, said afterward that the handover was not an extradition: Battisti had entered the country irregularly, and a resolution under Migration Law 370 had ordered his mandatory exit from Bolivia. A Bolivian public defender said that Battisti's rights had been violated by the speed of the expulsion.
Brazil had proposed that the sentence be limited to 30 years. Italian officials rejected the proposal on January 13. A joint statement from Brazil's foreign and justice ministries said that Battisti would leave Bolivia directly for Italy to serve his life sentence. An unmarked aircraft carried him from Santa Cruz, and on Monday January 14, 2019 it landed at Ciampino airport in Rome. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede were there. Bonafede said that justice does not weaken with time. Battisti was 64. Under the sentence he was to spend the first six months in daytime isolation in a high-security circuit, and he was held in Sardinia.
Throughout his years abroad Battisti had admitted only that he had belonged to the PAC. He said he had killed no one and described himself as a political refugee. In 2017 he said that he would face torture and death if he were returned to Italy.
On Saturday March 23, 2019 he was questioned in custody by Alberto Nobili, the Milan prosecutor who headed the city's anti-terrorism unit, for about nine hours. His lawyer, Davide Steccanella, had given him copies of all the judgments concerning him before the interview. Battisti accepted responsibility for the four murders for which he had been convicted. Milan prosecutors said he also acknowledged three cases of bodily harm and a number of robberies carried out to pay for the group. He described himself as the person who carried out two of the killings, those of Santoro and Campagna, as having had a supporting part in the Sabbadin killing and as having had an organizing part in the Torregiani killing, which matched the roles the courts had found.
He told the prosecutor: "I realize the wrong I have done and apologize to the families." His lawyer said the statements were not made in order to gain any benefit. Nobili was more guarded. He called Battisti someone who had not given up and who had misrepresented himself for 37 years, and he said that what had happened was neither cooperation with justice nor repentance. The Milan chief prosecutor, Francesco Greco, said the admission removed years of controversy about whether Battisti had been wrongly convicted.
In May 2019 Battisti's lawyer asked the Milan appeal court to convert the life sentence into a term of 30 years. On May 22 the court refused. It held that the sentence did not bar him from applying for benefits, including leave permits, after about 10 years of imprisonment in total. He had by then been in custody about six and a half years, counting earlier periods. Had the petition succeeded, the sentence would in practice have been reduced to about 20 years and seven months.
His lawyer then took the matter to the Court of Cassation, arguing that the life sentence was illegitimate because an extradition agreement with Brazil provided for a term of only 30 years. On November 19, 2019 the Court of Cassation declared the petition inadmissible.
In the first months after his return Battisti was held in Sardinia, and he was later moved to other regions. In September 2022 his regime was changed from high security to ordinary, an order that followed a favorable opinion from the Milan prosecutor's office. The opinion recorded that he had dissociated himself from armed struggle, that the PAC no longer existed and that no investigations against him were open.
Applications for leave followed. In December 2023 his lawyer said that a supervisory judge in Ferrara had assessed his conduct positively and recognized 540 days of early-release credit, and that a permit request was therefore admissible. In April 2024 the Bologna supervisory court rejected a complaint about a permit, acting on a favorable opinion from the prosecutor general.
By 2026 he was held in Tuscany in a medium-security facility. In December 2025 a supervisory judge indicated by video link that a permit would be granted, according to his lawyer, but the process stopped after a negative opinion from the prison administration. On April 28, 2026 the supervisory court in Massa rejected a request for a supervised leave of a couple of hours, on the ground that he might flee and was still dangerous. His lawyer appealed to the supervisory court in Genoa, which set a hearing for July 16, 2026. In a letter of May 2026 Battisti said he had served about 17 years and some months and that he met the legal requirements for leave and for semi-liberty. His lawyer said that other former members of armed groups had received more favorable measures.
Battisti's case turned on three features of the law of his time. The first was trial in absentia. The Italian trials were held while he was a fugitive, and the French Ministry of Justice noted that a lawyer represented him at each of them. Italian authorities state that seven final judgments by 24 judges established his guilt, and in 2009 Brazil's Supreme Court found that he had not been persecuted in his Italian trial.
The second was the Mitterrand doctrine. Announced in 1985, it offered refuge in France to Italian militants who had broken with violence, and French governments honored it until 2004, when the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin set the arrangement aside and signed the extradition decree.
The third was the position of the Brazilian president. Brazil's Supreme Court held in 2009 that extradition was authorized but left the final act to the president, and in 2011 that a refusal made within the terms of the treaty could not be challenged by Italy. In 2018 the Attorney General argued that the judiciary could not review a refusal to extradite but that a president could reverse it, and Justice Fux's order of December 13, 2018 held that the refusal of 2010 had created no acquired right to remain in Brazil.
Battisti denied for almost 40 years that he had killed anyone, and described the proceedings against him as political. The Brazilian Supreme Court examined that claim in 2009 and found by 5 votes to 4 that he had not been persecuted. His admission in March 2019 covered what the courts had already found. The prosecutor and Battisti's lawyer described it differently: the prosecutor said it was neither cooperation nor repentance, while the lawyer said Battisti recognized his responsibility with suffering and had reconsidered armed militancy.
A second dispute concerns how he left Bolivia. The Bolivian government said the handover was an expulsion under its migration law, not an extradition. A Bolivian public defender said the haste violated his rights. Brazil's ministries and Italian officials described it as a return to Italy to serve his sentence.
A third concerns the length of the sentence. Brazil proposed a 30-year cap, Italy refused, and the Italian courts held in May and November 2019 that the life sentence stood.
December 18, 1954: Cesare Battisti is born in Cisterna di Latina.
1972 and 1974: arrested on robbery charges.
1976: moves to Milan; arrested and held in custody in north-eastern Italy.
June 6, 1978: Antonio Santoro dies in Udine.
February 16, 1979: Pierluigi Torregiani dies in Milan and Lino Sabbadin near Venice.
April 19, 1979: Andrea Campagna dies in Milan.
June 26, 1979: Battisti is arrested in Milan.
October 4, 1981: he escapes from custody and leaves Italy.
1988: the Milan assize court sentences him in his absence to life imprisonment.
1990: he goes to France.
May 29, 1991: the Paris Court of Appeal declares him not extraditable.
1993: the Milan appeal court confirms the life sentence, which becomes final.
February 10, 2004: arrested in Paris on an Italian request; released under supervision on March 3.
June 30, 2004: the Paris Court of Appeal approves extradition.
October 23, 2004: the French prime minister signs the extradition decree.
March 2007: arrested in Rio de Janeiro.
January 2009: Brazil's Justice Minister grants him refugee status.
November 2009: the Supreme Federal Tribunal votes 5 to 4 that the refuge was unlawful and authorizes extradition, leaving the decision to the president.
December 31, 2010: President Lula refuses extradition.
June 8, 2011: the Supreme Federal Tribunal votes 6 to 3 to uphold Lula's decision; he is freed on June 9.
October 2017: stopped near the Bolivian border and released after a few days.
December 13, 2018: Justice Fux orders his arrest for extradition.
December 14, 2018: President Temer decides to extradite him.
January 12, 2019: arrested in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
January 14, 2019: lands in Rome.
March 23, 2019: tells a Milan prosecutor he accepts responsibility for the four killings.
May 22, 2019: Milan appeal court rejects conversion of the life sentence to 30 years.
November 19, 2019: Court of Cassation declares his petition inadmissible.
September 2022: regime changed from high security to ordinary.
April 28, 2026: supervisory court in Massa rejects a request for supervised leave.
June 30, 2026: appeal to the Genoa court set for hearing on July 16, 2026.