Italian man suspected of femicide found in Germany: Lawyer
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Giulia Cecchettin's body was found in a gully near Lake Barcis with her head and neck punctured with stab wounds.
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ROME - The police have arrested a 22-year-old Italian university student on the run in Germany who allegedly kidnapped and killed his former girlfriend, the man’s lawyer said on Nov 19.
Filippo Turetta, a 22-year-old student from Padua, was found in his car near Leipzig in Germany following a week-long search by Italian authorities, his lawyer Emanuele Compagno told Italy’s Ansa news agency.
Giulia Cecchettin, a fellow student and Turetta’s former girlfriend, went missing last weekend.
On Nov 18, her body was found in a gully near Lake Barcis, about 120km north of Venice, her head and neck punctured with stab wounds.
The manhunt was front-page news in Italy over the past week, when the victim had been due to receive her degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Padua.
It was the latest femicide case recorded in 2023 in Italy, where dozens of women have been killed at the hands of their husbands or partners.
In the year to Nov 12, there have been 102 murder cases with female victims in Italy, 82 of whom were killed by family members or current or former partners, according to the Interior Ministry.
Turetta was arrested by German police late on Nov 18 after his car ran out of petrol and he parked with his lights off on the emergency lane of a motorway near Leipzig.
The suspect “will be back in Italy within 48 hours to answer for his actions”, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.
The police got a lead earlier this week after video cameras near Cecchettin’s home captured images of Turetta attacking her on Nov 11, before fleeing with her in his car, news reports said,
The president of the Veneto region, Mr Luca Zaia, said a day of mourning would be set for the day of Cecchettin’s funeral.
“I think that on the day of the funeral, it is right that in schools we talk about femicides,” Mr Zaia told Rai News 24, while acknowledging that education was “not enough” to stamp out femicide.
“We really need to start teaching our young people from early childhood to respect women, their sisters, mothers and schoolmates, because that’s how we’ll change things,” Tajani said. AFP
