Businessman Valter Lavitola Arrested for Attack on Journalist Sigfrido Ranucci

Italian businessman and former editor Valter Lavitola was arrested in Rome on Monday for allegedly instigating an explosive attack against investigative journalist Sigfrido Ranucci. The attack occurred on October 16 of last year in Pomezia, near Rome, when an explosive device detonated near Ranucci's car parked in front of his home. Ranucci was not injured, though he reported the event as an act of intimidation. The Rome Prosecutor's Office, coordinated by Francesco Lo Voi, alleges that the attack involved mafia-style methods.

Investigators claim Lavitola conceived the criminal plan and hired Gomes Clesio Tavares, a Cameroonian citizen currently at large in Africa, to act as an intermediary. According to the Carabinieri, Tavares recruited and instructed a gang of four people from the Campania region to carry out the bombing. The four material executors were arrested in late June in the provinces of Naples and Avellino. Evidence supporting the charges includes cross-analysis of phone and electronic records, vehicle tracking, and forensic examinations of mobile phones.

Lavitola has a significant criminal history. He was imprisoned in Naples between 2012 and 2016 and has faced convictions for fraudulent bankruptcy and attempting to extort former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He was also convicted in the first instance for attempting to extort the construction company Impregilo.

Legal representatives for Ranucci stated that the arrest confirms the gravity of the attack. His lawyer, Roberto De Vita, noted that while the judiciary views Ranucci as the victim, some politicians and journalists have attempted to use the event to delegitimize investigative journalism and the program 'Report'.