Filippo Turetta, 22, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday after he admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend, Giulia Cecchettin, in a high-profile case that sparked a nationwide debate over gender-based violence in Italy.Prosecutors had requested Italy’s harshest penalty for Turetta over the killing of Giulia Cecchettin in November last year, just days before she was due to graduate from the University of Padua.
Cecchettin, also 22, was stabbed at least 75 times in a shocking murder that sparked mass protests over violence against women across Italy.
Outside the Venice court, Cecchettin’s father, Gino, said the sentence had not advanced the cause.
“I think gender violence shouldn’t be fought with sentences but with prevention, teaching concepts that maybe are still a bit far off,” Cecchettin told reporters.
“As a father, nothing has changed compared to yesterday or a year ago.”
The reading of the sentence, which was broadcast live on Italian television, elicited no visible reaction from Turetta.
His lawyer Giovanni Caruso had called the request for life imprisonment excessive, saying his client was “not Pablo Escobar” – the notorious Colombian drug lord.
When the trial opened in September, Caruso warned against a “media trial”. Last week, he insisted there were no “aggravating circumstances” such as cruelty or premeditation.
But prosecutor Andrea Petroni said Turetta acted with “particular brutality”, attacking Cecchettin before fleeing with her in his car.
Her body was found a week after she went missing in a gully near Lake Barcis, north of Venice.
Turetta was arrested a day later near Leipzig, Germany, after his car ran out of petrol.
Gino Cecchettin said last week that nothing would bring his daughter back, but his goal was “to ensure there are as few cases like Giulia’s as possible, that there are fewer parents who have to mourn a dead daughter”.
Cecchettin’s murder is one of a string of femicides that have made headlines in Italy in recent years, but it struck a nerve, pushing the issue to the forefront of public discourse.
Thousands of people turned out to pay their respects at her funeral, with her father asking men to “challenge the culture that tends to minimise violence by men who appear normal”.
Giulia’s sister, Elena, called for a cultural revolution, urging sympathisers to “burn everything” – a message since scrawled on walls and protest banners, often alongside the phrase “patriarchy kills”.
Out of 276 murders recorded by Italy’s interior ministry so far this year, 100 of the victims were women – 88 killed by someone close to them, the vast majority by a partner or ex.
Cecchettin’s family has set up a foundation in her name, calling for better education, more support for women facing violence and greater efforts to encourage equality and respect.
Last month, thousands of people marched through Rome and Sicily’s capital Palermo to mark the international day for the elimination of violence against women, many of them walking in Cecchettin’s name.
While denouncing long-standing discrimination against women and a lack of policies such as sex education in schools, some campaigners have accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government of failing women.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara sparked uproar last month by saying that “male domination no longer exists” in Italy, and linking violence against women with illegal immigration.
Elena Cecchettin hit back that her sister, a biomedical engineering student, was killed by a “young white Italian”.
Meloni, Italy’s first woman prime minister, said last week that legislation was not lacking in Italy, but that “the challenge remains above all cultural”.
The leader of the Brothers of Italy party also made a link with illegal immigration – even though official figures from 2022 show that 94 percent of Italian female murder victims were killed by Italian nationals.
More
Comments
See Also
Prosecutors had requested Italy’s harshest penalty for Turetta over the killing of Giulia Cecchettin in November last year, just days before she was due to graduate from the University of Padua.
Cecchettin, also 22, was stabbed at least 75 times in a shocking murder that sparked mass protests over violence against women across Italy.
Outside the Venice court, Cecchettin’s father, Gino, said the sentence had not advanced the cause.
“I think gender violence shouldn’t be fought with sentences but with prevention, teaching concepts that maybe are still a bit far off,” Cecchettin told reporters.
“As a father, nothing has changed compared to yesterday or a year ago.”
The reading of the sentence, which was broadcast live on Italian television, elicited no visible reaction from Turetta.
His lawyer Giovanni Caruso had called the request for life imprisonment excessive, saying his client was “not Pablo Escobar” – the notorious Colombian drug lord.
When the trial opened in September, Caruso warned against a “media trial”. Last week, he insisted there were no “aggravating circumstances” such as cruelty or premeditation.
But prosecutor Andrea Petroni said Turetta acted with “particular brutality”, attacking Cecchettin before fleeing with her in his car.
Her body was found a week after she went missing in a gully near Lake Barcis, north of Venice.
Turetta was arrested a day later near Leipzig, Germany, after his car ran out of petrol.
Gino Cecchettin said last week that nothing would bring his daughter back, but his goal was “to ensure there are as few cases like Giulia’s as possible, that there are fewer parents who have to mourn a dead daughter”.
Cecchettin’s murder is one of a string of femicides that have made headlines in Italy in recent years, but it struck a nerve, pushing the issue to the forefront of public discourse.
Thousands of people turned out to pay their respects at her funeral, with her father asking men to “challenge the culture that tends to minimise violence by men who appear normal”.
Giulia’s sister, Elena, called for a cultural revolution, urging sympathisers to “burn everything” – a message since scrawled on walls and protest banners, often alongside the phrase “patriarchy kills”.
Out of 276 murders recorded by Italy’s interior ministry so far this year, 100 of the victims were women – 88 killed by someone close to them, the vast majority by a partner or ex.
Cecchettin’s family has set up a foundation in her name, calling for better education, more support for women facing violence and greater efforts to encourage equality and respect.
Last month, thousands of people marched through Rome and Sicily’s capital Palermo to mark the international day for the elimination of violence against women, many of them walking in Cecchettin’s name.
While denouncing long-standing discrimination against women and a lack of policies such as sex education in schools, some campaigners have accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government of failing women.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara sparked uproar last month by saying that “male domination no longer exists” in Italy, and linking violence against women with illegal immigration.
Elena Cecchettin hit back that her sister, a biomedical engineering student, was killed by a “young white Italian”.
Meloni, Italy’s first woman prime minister, said last week that legislation was not lacking in Italy, but that “the challenge remains above all cultural”.
The leader of the Brothers of Italy party also made a link with illegal immigration – even though official figures from 2022 show that 94 percent of Italian female murder victims were killed by Italian nationals.
More
Comments
See Also
Joan Pekar
Read More