Fugitive Battisti handed to Italy, flies out of Bolivia

Former communist militant Cesare Battisti was handed over to Italian authorities by Bolivian officials in Santa Cruz on Sunday and put on a plane headed for Rome.

"The plane carrying Cesare Battisti has just taken off headed for Italy. I am proud and moved!" Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted.

Battisti, an Italian convicted of four murders in absentia, had been on the run for almost four decades before he was captured by police in Santa Cruz late Saturday following an Interpol operation.