After years of denying, leftist militant Battisti confesses of 4 murders committed in 1970s

Former leftist guerrilla Cesare Battisti has confessed for the first time to committing four murders in the 1970s after years of denying any wrongdoing, and has apologised for his actions, prosecutors said on Monday. Battisti, 64, was extradited to Italy in January ending almost four decades on the run in France and Brazil.

"He got shelter abroad for decades, thanks to his image of being an innocent victim of political persecution. Now he has decided to come clean," prosecutor Alberto Nobili, head of Milan's anti-terrorism team, told reporters. Battisti had been sentenced in absentia to life in prison for his involvement in the murders of two policemen, a jeweller and a butcher in the late 1970s when he was a member of the far-left Armed Proletarians for Communism.

He had acknowledged belonging to the gang, but had previously denied killing anyone. He was questioned in jail at the weekend and Nobili quoted him as saying: "'When I killed I thought I was fighting a just war. Now I understand the wrongs I've committed and I apologise to the victims' families.'"

Battisti's lawyer Davide Steccanella confirmed that his client had confessed and denied it had anything to do with Battisti seeking improved prison conditions, or any eventual request for a reduced jail sentence. "Absolutely not," Steccanella told Reuters.

"My client simply decided to clarify and explain who he was in his 20s, and who he is now." After escaping Italy in 1981, Battisti lived first in France before fleeing to Brazil, where he lived openly thanks to the support of former left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

However, Brazil's new far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who took office in January, pledged to return him to Italy. Battisti sought to evade justice by fleeing to Bolivia, but he was swiftly captured and put on a flight to Rome. "For years I denounced the protection given to this terrorist, who was treated here as a political exile," Bolsonaro said on Twitter on Monday. "Brazil's new message to the world is: we will not be a bandit's paradise anymore!"