An Italy in a state of shock remembered this Saturday with hundreds of mass demonstrations throughout the country the International Day of Repudiation of Violence against Women, in a painful memory of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, who was due to withdraw her degree in computer engineering at the University of Padua this week. Her boyfriend Fillppo Turetta, of the same age, demanded that she not do it, kidnapped her and fled with her while all of Italy followed the search for a week.
In Rome, 60,<> people marched through the center to Piazza San Giovani, in front of the cathedral of the pope, bishop of the metropolis.
Turetta stabbed Giulia to death with twenty stab wounds, hid the body and fled to Germany, where he was captured and returned to Italy on Saturday on a special military flight.
Giulia's murder was the latest of 107 femicide crimes that husbands, boyfriends and exes have committed this year in a stunning escalation in Italy. The characteristics of the case have produced a real outburst of indignation in the country such as has rarely been seen.
Hundreds of demonstrations took place on Saturday in the country, especially dominated by a female majority never seen before, supported by the mind-boggling characteristics of the case by the rest of society.
Universities, colleges and schools paid tribute to Giulia with a minute's silence. The novelty was that spontaneously female rage added another minute of "noises" to reflect the popular repudiation of the growing phenomenon of murders of women by their male partners, which is spreading in many countries around the world.
A crowd at a march in repudiation of femicides in Turin, Italy. Photo: EFE
Millions of young people banged their desks at universities and colleges. But also in the marches, women and men rang their house keys to say "enough!" to the violence.
The Bloody Femicide
The young murderer, also 22 years old, was considered by his family and friends "a golden ragazzo". His girlfriend Giulia told the sister that she was fed up with the relationship but didn't want to break up because she feared "it would be done wrong," as she reportedly threatened.
The story has a background of sick machismo that is strongly poisoning Italian society. The country is battered by the reason for the crime: preventing Giulia from withdrawing her doctoral degree in computer engineering this week.
Filippo Turetta was grieving because Giulia was about to be awarded a year or two after Giulia, who flatly rejected her boyfriend's pressure to avoid the laurea ceremony at the University of Padua, one of the oldest in the world, because he felt "diminished."
"Every woman murdered because she is guilty of being free is an intolerable aberration, but it leads me to continue on the path to stop this barbarism," said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has already approved a package of measures that makes penalties harsher and promotes actions to protect victims.
On the night of Sunday the 12th, a resident of Vigonovo, in the Veneto region where the victim's family lives, heard an argument and violent noises. The police called that when they arrived they found traces of an assault ended when Giulia was beaten and put inside the car by her boyfriend.
The march of the "Ni una menos" movement in Turin, Italy, this Saturday. Photo: EFE
Three days later, while the car and its occupants were already being searched in northern Venice, cameras at an industrial establishment showed Giulia trying to flee and her boyfriend beating her. A guard called the police.
It is believed that it was that night that Filippo killed his girlfriend, then took her to a wooded area and left her body hidden.
A forensic doctor who examined him two days ago in a cadaveric inspection ruled that the young woman had received about twenty stab wounds in various parts of the body, especially between the head and neck. The forensic doctors claim that poor Giulia did not die immediately, she agonized for almost half an hour.
The search seemed very difficult, but a police dog managed to sniff it and led to the place where the body was found.
The search for the killer multiplied with more helicopters monitoring the roads in the area, until it was announced that Filippo had been arrested in neighboring Germany while fleeing. He had run out of money and fuel.
A hand stained with blood red, as a symbol of violence against women, at a march in Ravenna, Italy. Photo: EFE
"I Killed My Girlfriend"
To the police officers who arrested him, he presented himself with his arms raised. "I've killed my girlfriend," he told them. The international arrest warrant was already circulating throughout Europe and it was decided to speed up all the extradition procedures.
The military plane sent by the Italians to look for him arrived at Venice airport at noon today. It emerged that Filippo Turella simply told German police that "I thought several times about ending everything, but I had no courage when I put the knife to my neck."
The inflamed popular reaction seems to show that it has finally been decided to attack head-on the phenomenon that is growing year after year. The president of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, said that "these dramatic events shake the consciences of the country."
"A human society inspired by criteria of civilization cannot accept, cannot tolerate the trickle of aggression against women, if not their murder. The irremediable grief and pain of the injured families and communities are the agony of all," the president said.
Mattarella concluded that it is necessary to accelerate a path in which women and men meet to build together a better humanity, in difference and in solidarity, aware that it cannot act without respect, without the acceptance of the freedom of others".
The extension and the angry reaction of millions of young people prompted Pope Francis to intervene, who called on Saturday to "combat violence against women with an educational action that puts the person and his or her dignity at the center."
"Violence against women is a poisonous weed that afflicts our society and must be nipped in the bud. These roots grow in the soil of prejudice and injustice and are combated with an educational action that puts the person and his or her dignity at the center," the Argentine Pope concluded.
CB