Lavitola confesses to the investigating magistrate that he was the instigator of the attack on Ranucci

I am the person who ordered the attack on Sigfrido Ranucci. Valter Lavitola immediately confirmed the investigating judge’s allegations during the preliminary hearing, which lasted over five hours and took place today in Rome at Rebibbia Prison, where the businessman has been detained since Monday.

His lawyer, Sergio Cola, told reporters: “He has confirmed the prosecution’s case by admitting that he was the instigator of the attack and says he did so to protect Ranucci’s safety, as he had been the target of several dangerous attempts to attack him and had his security detail increased,” said the lawyer. 

The attack took place on 16 October last year outside the home of Sigfrido Ranucci, journalist and presenter of Report, in Pomezia. Just today, on his social media, Ranucci posted the following: “Having spent years tracing the thread that links Aldo Moro to Piersanti Mattarella, and Piersanti Mattarella to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, I have learnt that Italian history never kills its finest men out of weakness: it kills them because of an excess of clarity.” The Facebook post is titled "La voce spaventa" and continues: "They all die in exactly the same way, not so much because of the bullet or the TNT, but because they saw, a moment before the others, the whole picture of which they were a part, and because they attempted, with the naivety of those who still believe in the truth as a common good, to speak out about it," concludes Ranucci.

The post has drawn criticism from members of Fratelli d’Italia on the Rai Supervisory Commission, who claim it is “despicable for a journalist to compare himself to those who fought the Mafia”. The statement asks the journalist to explain “why, as shown in the investigation files, on the day of the search at Lavitola’s home, he spent two hours on the phone with the alleged instigator of the attack in an attempt to arrange an alibi for Lavitola himself”.