The murder of a young lady, Giulia Cecchettin, 22, by her apparently possessive ex-boyfriend has sparked widespread outburst in Italy, and the prime minister has vowed to do more to eliminate the epidemic of domestic violence that has killed fifty women this year.
German authorities apprehended Filippo Turetta over the weekend after he had evaded capture since November 11, when he was last seen physically assaulting her in a confrontation captured on surveillance footage.
On Saturday, a plastic-wrapped corpse of Cecchettin was discovered in a ditch close to Lake Barcis in the province of Pordenone, north of Venice. The corpse allegedly bore numerous stab wounds.
After hearing from several sources that Turetta would not accept Cecchettin’s choice to quit the relationship, the search for them both had taken over Italian headlines. Elena, Cecchettin’s sister, had previously stated that she had been worried about Turetta’s possessiveness towards her, but she had never thought he would intentionally harm her.
On Sunday, authorities in Halle, a city in eastern Germany, announced that they had apprehended a 21-year-old Italian male. The individual had been wanted by Italian authorities following a car crash on the A9 highway in the southern part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany.
Police road cameras followed Turetta’s black Fiat Punto as he drove across northern Italy’s mountain roads, Austria, and Germany, according to Italian news reports.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated that Turetta was likely to return to Italy within days, and state-run RAI radio reported that he has consented to be extradited.
For seven days, news coverage focused on what had become of Cecchettin, an engineering major who was due to receive her diploma. When her body was eventually located, there was an outburst of fury. A candlelit vigil was held in her honour, and RAI’s major evening news programme on Sunday featured photos of all the women killed this year as a backdrop. Turetta’s parents were also in attendance.
The lengthy history of domestic violence in Italy, which has been ratcheted up in recent years, has outraged Premier Giorgia Meloni, who has voiced her concern that the problem is becoming worse. According to statistics provided by the Italian Interior Ministry, 53 of the 102 women murdered in Italy this year (up to November 12) were murdered by their current or former spouses.
“Every woman killed because she is ‘guilty’ of being free is an aberration that cannot be tolerated and that drives me to continue on the path taken to stop this barbarity,” she wrote in a statement circulated on social media.
Later this month, the Senate will consider a government-backed bill that would strengthen protections for victims of domestic violence by increasing the number of preventative measures already in place.
Beyond that, the Interior Ministry requested that all educational institutions observe a moment of quiet on Tuesday in memory of Cecchettin “and all abused women and victims of violence.”
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