Lavitola was arrested in connection with the attack on Ranucci

The businessman Valter Lavitola has been arrested and remanded in custody on charges of ordering the attack on Sigfrido Ranucci, which took place last October in Pomezia, near Rome. The pre-trial detention order was issued by the investigating magistrate in Rome as part of the investigation being conducted by the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office, coordinated by Public Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi. 

According to investigators, Lavitola is alleged to have commissioned the attack from the four individuals already arrested as the perpetrators. The prosecution’s case includes charges of possession, carrying in a public place and use of an explosive device, threats and criminal damage, committed in a mafia-style manner and aggravated by the fact that there were more than five accomplices. Lavitola had denied the charges, maintaining that he was not the instigator. 

In connection with the precautionary measure against Valter Lavitola, the investigating magistrate in Rome has also issued an arrest warrant for the Cameroonian national Gomes Clesio Tavares, who is accused by Rome’s public prosecutors of having taken part in the plot to attack the journalist Sigfrido Ranucci.

The man is currently on the run and is believed to be in Africa. According to the prosecution, Gomes is alleged to have acted as the intermediary between Lavitola and the four people who are believed to have carried out the bomb attack on 16 October last year in Pomezia.

"The arrest of Valter Lavitola confirms the seriousness and complexity of the attack suffered by Sigfrido Ranucci; it will be essential to understand the motive and the context in which it developed," commented Sigfrido Ranucci’s lawyer, Roberto De Vita. “Whilst it is clear to the judicial authorities that Ranucci is the victim, for some journalists and politicians the attack itself has been turned into a pretext for settling scores with Report and its journalists, as part of a frenzied strategy aimed at discrediting investigative journalism,” said the lawyer. 

As Luciano Capone wrote in "Il Foglio", Lavitola’s case has so far been the only instance in Italian history of a suspect under investigation for mass murder aggravated by mafia methods remaining at liberty – not because he is a fugitive, but because he is free to speak his mind. Whilst the alleged group responsible for planting the bomb on the presenter of “Report” has been in custody since 30 June, their alleged instigator has, until now, been free to communicate with the victim and the rest of the world, sending messages via the press.