A femicide trial opened Monday in Venice to judge the ex-boyfriend of a student whose murder in 2023 shocked Italy.
With the prosecution and defense having waived their witnesses, few hearings will be needed to reach a verdict in this crime that has shocked Italy, a country where the fight against violence against women is lagging behind. The verdict should therefore be delivered on December 3, the court decided.
The murder in November 2023 of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, a biomedical engineering student in Padua, a university town about 40 kilometers from Venice, has shed a grim light on femicides in Italy.
Defendant Filippo Turetta, 22, was not present at the opening of the proceedings on Monday morning.
“Turetta deserves a sentence, not a media trial. He must not become the face of a cultural battle against gender violence,” argued his lawyer, Giovanni Caruso, when opposing the desire of activist associations to constitute themselves as civil parties.
“This is not the trial of the femicide but that of Filippo Turetta,” added the prosecutor of Venice, Bruno Cherchi, quoted by the local press.
The victim’s father, Gino Cecchettin, refused to make any statement upon his arrival at the court.
According to official figures, a woman is killed every three days in Italy, a figure comparable to that in France, but much higher than the number of murders per capita whose victims are men.
“Rape culture”
Italy is predominantly Catholic. Traditional gender roles persist and the culture of flirting often goes hand in hand with macho and sexist behavior.
Giulia Cecchettin was reported missing on November 11, 2023.
Video cameras installed near his home captured the first moments of the attack and the murderer’s escape in a car with his victim. A manhunt then began, which would last a week, followed hour by hour by the Italian media.
The student’s body was finally found on November 18 in a ravine near Lake Barcis, about 120 kilometers north of Venice. Her head and neck bore signs of more than 70 stab wounds, according to media reports citing the autopsy.
Filippo Turetta, running out of petrol, is arrested near Leipzig, Germany.
Hundreds of thousands of people are demonstrating across the country on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Giulia Cecchettin’s sister, Elena, then denounced the “patriarchy” and the “rape culture” that she said prevailed in Italian society.
At her funeral in Padua, her father Gino asked that his daughter’s death mark a “turning point to end the terrible scourge of violence against women.”
In 2023, Italy voted for Paola Cortellesi’s film There is still tomorrowabout domestic violence and women’s fight for emancipation after the war. Shot in black and white, this historical drama attracted nearly 4.4 million viewers, becoming the most-watched film of the year.
“I am guilty”
Filippo Turetta faces life in prison for murder and kidnapping.
Video excerpts from his hearing by a judge on 1er December 2023 were broadcast last week on the program “Quarto Grado” on the private channel Rete 4. “I am responsible, I am guilty. I am responsible for these acts, yes,” he said.
In a calm voice, he explains how Giulia Cecchettin refused to give him a stuffed animal, telling him she wanted to end their relationship and sparking an argument in the car.
As she tried to escape on foot, the young woman was caught by her killer, who first stabbed her in the arm before dragging her back into the vehicle and fleeing. “I stabbed her, I don’t know, about 10, 12, 13, I don’t know, several times,” Turetta said.
According to the Interior Ministry, 120 women were murdered in Italy last year, 97 of them by family members or by their current or ex-partners.
After Giulia’s death, parliament strengthened the legislative arsenal protecting women, but associations say that cultural change requires much more, starting with mandatory awareness raising on the subject in schools.
According to a government report from July 2021, “in some regions, up to 50% of men believe that violence is acceptable in relationships.”