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The death of this 22-year-old student, whose body was found last Saturday, north of Venice, moves the peninsula. Her ex-boyfriend, suspected of having killed her, is awaiting extradition after being arrested in Germany at the end of a week on the run which kept the country in suspense.
Italy in shock after a new femicide. That of Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old student, missing for a week before being found dead in a ravine on Saturday November 18, 100 kilometers north of Venice. Filippo Turetta, the victim’s ex-companion, who had also disappeared, was finally arrested last Saturday evening in Germany, near Leipzig. This 22-year-old student, friend of Giulia Cecchettin, is suspected of having kidnapped and killed her. The investigation into the young woman’s death is making headlines in the Italian media. And this 106th feminicide since the start of the year on the peninsula, according to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, sparks a wave of indignation that shakes Italy.
A crime of “incredible ferocity”
Last Saturday, a week after her disappearance, Giulia Cecchettin was found dead in a ravine near Lake Barcis, about a hundred kilometers north of Venice. His body received 26 stab wounds, according to the medical examiner’s report consulted by the Corriere della Sera.
Filippo Turetta, comrade and ex-boyfriend of Giulia Cecchettin, also missing for a week, is the subject of an international warrant. He was arrested last Saturday evening by the German police. His car was stopped, with its headlights off and low on fuel, on the hard shoulder of a highway linking Berlin to Munich, near Leipzig, more than 1,000 kilometers from the scene of the crime.
During his arrest, suspect Filippo Turetta told the police: “I killed my girlfriend”according to information from Corriere della Sera. A knife is discovered in his bag and bloodstains cover his clothes and the seats of his car.
The extradition of Filippo Turetta was the subject of an agreement, according to Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. In the meantime, the investigation is trying to reconstruct the night of November 11 to 12, during which Giulia Cecchetin was killed, and is based in particular on video surveillance images. A 22-minute sequence of “violence and incredible ferocity”, according to investigating judge Benedetta Vitolo, in charge of the investigation.
The political turmoil
The entire Italian political class is moved by this new feminicide. In particular, the President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, who reacts to the discovery of Giulia Cecchettin’s body on Saturday November 19 on X (ex-Twitter): “We had all hoped in recent days that Giulia was alive. Unfortunately, our greatest fears came true. Killed. I feel infinite sadness seeing the smiling photographs of this young girl and, with the sadness, great anger. “
In the wake of the student’s murder, the Italian Senate unanimously adopted on Wednesday a bill “aimed at strengthening measures to protect women” which had already been voted on by the lower house. The secretary of the Italian Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition to Giorgia Meloni, wants to go further and calls for adoption “of a law which introduces education in respect in all schools” of the country, because “repression is not enough if there is no prevention, she emphasizes. The toxic culture of patriarchy exists and persists and it is a collective responsibility to end it, especially for men.”also declares Elly Schlein.
The national echo and angry youth
In an open letter published Monday in Corriere della Sera, the sister of Giulia Cecchettin, Elena, refuses the usual minute of silence decreed on Tuesday by the Italian Minister of Education. On the contrary, it calls for “make noise”has “burn everything”in order to denounce “patriarchal society” whom she considers responsible in the death of his sister.
“Monsters are not sick, they are healthy children of patriarchy, of rape culture […] Femicide is state murder because the state does not protect us. Femicide is not a crime of passion, it is a crime of power.”
Elena, Giulia Cecchettin’s sisterin a column published in the “Corriere della Sera”
High school students, students and feminist movements respond to the victim’s sister’s call and have announced that they will not participate in Tuesday’s tribute. Part of the transalpine youth also denounces the culture of rape and the silence regarding feminicides in Italy. Several gatherings have taken place since last weekend, notably in Padua, where Giulia Cecchettin and Filippo Turetta were studying. The young woman was to receive her biomedical engineering diploma these days. And the mobilization will continue, a large demonstration is planned in Rome on Saturday, November 25, on the occasion of the international day for the elimination of violence against women.