Lavitola, under investigation but still at large in connection with the Ranucci bomb, is speaking to everyone except the prosecutors

After the bomb, the misdirection. According to media reports, investigators from the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office – who are gathering the numerous interviews Valter Lavitola has been giving daily to newspapers and television – are convinced of this: the alleged instigator of the attack on Sigfrido Ranucci is, through his public statements, attempting to influence and divert the course of the investigation. This is yet another anomaly in this investigation, though it stems from an even greater anomaly: the failure to impose precautionary measures on Lavitola. There is a huge disparity between the charge and the preferential treatment accorded to the suspect. This is unprecedented in the history of the Republic for an investigation into a massacre aggravated by the use of mafia methods. Let us look beyond this specific case.

Could one have imagined, prior to the Lavitola-Ranucci case, that a person under investigation for allegedly masterminding a terrorist attack that involved planting a bomb to harm a figure of national importance would be allowed to speak to the victim whilst a search was taking place? And that they would then be allowed, in the days that followed, to communicate with their right-hand man – who had in the meantime fled to an exotic country and was under investigation for having hired the terrorist-mafia hit squad? 

And that he should then be left at large – and, above all, free to speak his mind – able, in other words, to use interviews and newspapers to send veiled messages to his alleged accomplices and the victim? To anyone, that would have seemed madness. Yet that is exactly what has happened – and is happening – in this surreal affair.

During the search, which, incidentally, involved the seizure of mobile phones, Lavitola rang Ranucci and sent him text messages. He then spoke to his right-hand man, Clesio Tavares Gomes, who, according to the prosecution, provided the car to the perpetrators of the attack and who, after the bombing, left for Cameroon. And this despite the fact that, according to the investigators, Lavitola is “the person on whom Gomes’s return to Italy depends”. In essence, for over a week Lavitola has been speaking to everyone. Except the prosecutors.

Lavitola has chosen not to answer the magistrates’ questions, but to answer those of journalists whilst continuing to communicate remotely with alleged accomplices and the victim, to whom, incidentally, he made a promise: “If that arsehole even suggests he has the slightest doubt that it might have been me, I’ll go wherever he is and spit in his face” (which is always better than nitroglycerine under the car). At the same time, Lavitola says, again via the media, that Ranucci is “like a brother” and that Gomes is “like a son”, whilst the man from Cameroon confirms this by replying that Lavitola is “like a father”.

In this surreal situation, it is not Lavitola’s legitimate defence and communication strategy – as he maintains his innocence – that is in question. Rather, it is the investigators who believe him to be the possible instigator. How is it possible that they have not yet requested precautionary measures? If not imprisonment – a measure generally sought for mafia-style offences – then at the very least house arrest to prevent communication with the outside world, from possible accomplices to the victim. Moreover, it is also peculiar that the four accused of placing the explosive device outside Ranucci’s house are in custody, whilst their alleged instigator is not.

The investigators’ decision may have had a technical justification, though this is becoming increasingly untenable. The investigation gained momentum following a briefing note from the judicial police on 4 July, partly because the investigators realised that Lavitola had bought a ticket and packed his bags to join his business partner Gomes in Cameroon. It is therefore possible that the prosecution did not yet have sufficient serious evidence of guilt to request precautionary measures, but was in fact seeking such evidence through the search before the suspect could abscond. This, moreover, is far from unlikely, given that as early as 2011 Lavitola had gone into hiding in Latin America during the investigations into the escort scandal during the Berlusconi era.

This factor alone, however – the risk of absconding – is precisely one of the grounds justifying the precautionary measures. The other is the risk of evidence tampering, which the prosecution is now highlighting in the press: Lavitola is allegedly using his freedom to influence, if not outright derail, the investigation. In this context, there is another significant issue, namely his relationship with the victim. Setting aside from the outset the hypothesis – raised by Lavitola himself in a message to Ranucci – of an agreement between the two to stage a fake attack, Ranucci now risks becoming a victim twice over: first of the bomb and now of blackmail. The reputation of the presenter of "Report" is now, in fact, in the hands – or rather, on the lips – of his alleged attacker: any statement made by Lavitola, whether true or false, could have a devastating effect on Ranucci’s personal and professional life. In some ways, this is worse than the explosive device itself. Nor is this merely a hypothetical scenario, but a matter of fact: Lavitola was convicted of attempted extortion against Silvio Berlusconi – of whom he was also a ‘friend’ – for having demanded several million euros (which he never received) in exchange for his silence regarding the escort ring.

In some ways, it is history repeating itself. Berlusconi denied having been blackmailed by Lavitola, and now Ranucci says he is convinced that Lavitola would never have harmed him or his family. Both Berlusconi and Ranucci are defending their friend Valter as much as they can; it is unclear whether this is out of gratitude or because they are being blackmailed, whether genuinely or falsely. The difference is that in the first case, Lavitola was able to sow discord whilst on the run in Panama for minor offences; this time, he is doing so whilst under investigation but at liberty in Italy for a mafia-related massacre: back then there was an arrest warrant; now there isn’t. The problem for the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office is that Lavitola is talking to anyone about the investigation, but the problem with the investigation is that the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office is allowing Lavitola to talk to anyone.