Why Lavitola is right to wonder how it is possible that he has not been arrested

Valter Lavitola cannot understand two things: why he is under investigation and why he has not been arrested. The new restaurateur and long-standing wheeler-dealer, suspected by the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office of being behind the bomb attack on his close friend Sigfrido Ranucci, makes this clear in every interview. At the Cefalù restaurant, where he receives journalists, after the customary introduction, he reiterates to the journalists – most recently those from ‘Filorosso’ on Rai 3 – that he is innocent, but also that, given the current situation, he ought to be in a prison cell. “I’m one hundred per cent certain I’ll end up in prison.” In fact, Lavitola says he should have been in prison a long time ago: “If you want the honest truth, when I went to the public prosecutor’s office, I was sure they’d arrest me after the interrogation. I had to say goodbye to my son before I went. I even took my rucksack with me.” And, indirectly, he also explains the legal grounds for the precautionary measures when he says that he would very much like to speak to his friend Ranucci but “my lawyer keeps saying that it would constitute tampering with evidence”. But this is exactly what has already happened.

During the search, which incidentally involved the seizure of mobile phones, Lavitola sent messages to his alleged victim. And after the search, the two spoke on the phone for hours. Lavitola speaks to everyone: to the alleged victim, to the alleged accomplice now in Cameroon who is said to have hired the bombers, and to journalists almost daily. But not with the prosecutors, who did not seek pre-trial detention for Lavitola and have been complaining for the past few days – via the newspapers, just like Lavitola – that their prime suspect is allegedly throwing the investigation off track through the interviews he gives from his restaurant.

It is a rather unusual, or rather, surreal situation. This is the only case in Italian history of a suspect charged with mass murder aggravated by the use of mafia methods who remains at liberty – not because he is on the run, but because he is free to speak his mind. The alleged low-level operatives who planted the bomb on the presenter of “Report” are in custody, whilst their alleged instigator is not: he is free to communicate with the victim and the rest of the world, sending messages – whether sincere or self-serving, and of varying degrees of generality – via the press.

Ultimately, the aspects of this investigation that Lavitola cannot explain are the very same that the rest of the country cannot explain either. There are two possible scenarios: either the prosecution investigated and searched his premises on the basis of flimsy evidence that did not justify his arrest, presenting him to the public as the man who attacked his friend; or, if the investigation is seriously grounded in evidence, it is unclear why precautionary measures were not also put in place. There are no other options. And unfortunately, the public prosecutor’s office has provided no explanation for either of these two possibilities.