(ANSA) - Rome, January 14 - An Italian government Falcon 900 aircraft carrying former leftwing terrorist Cesare Battisti landed at Rome Ciampino airport on Monday.

The 64-year-old was arrested in Bolivia at the weekend after around 38 years as a fugitive of Italian justice.

He is set to serve a life sentence for four murders committed in Italy's 'years of lead' of political violence in the 1970s and 1980s. Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede said Battisti will be taken to a high-security jail at Oristano, in Sardinia, and will be held in isolation, at least initially.

Prosecutors said Battisti will serve the whole term and will not be eligible for time off his sentence for good behaviour or any other forms of leniency or benefits. "It's a great result that was due, not just in abstract terms so that justice is done, but also because we owed it to the families of the victims," Premier Giuseppe Conte told a press conference.

Battisti, a former member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC), had recently fled from Brazil, where he had lived openly for many years and and been granted asylum, anticipating an order for his arrest by a Brazilian judge. New Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had promised to have Battisti extradited. "I reiterated our enormous thanks in the name of 60 million Italians for having made it possible to close the Battisti case in a positive way," Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said. "We made a commitment to meet soon in Brazil or in Italy to reinforce relations between our peoples and our governments and strengthen our personal friendship".

Battisti escaped from an Italian prison in 1981 while awaiting trial and was convicted in absentia in 1990. After initially fleeing to Mexico, he moved to France, where he became a successful writer of crime novels.

Battisti fled from France to the end of the Mitterrand doctrine which gave sanctuary to fugitive leftist guerrillas.

Milan prosecutors have opened a probe into the network that helped Battisti while he was a fugitive.

