Italian police arrest businessman over bomb attack on TV journalist Sigfrido Ranucci

Investigating judge says Valter Lavitola ordered the Pomezia blast to boost his friend's popularity and further his own political ambitions. Italian police on Monday arrested businessman and former journalist Valter Lavitola on suspicion of ordering last October's bomb attack on the home of RAI investigative reporter Sigfrido Ranucci. Carabinieri detained Lavitola, 60, after a Rome preliminary investigations judge issued a pre-trial detention order accusing him of commissioning the attack. A second suspect, Cameroonian national Gomes Clesio Tavares, 47, alleged to have acted as an intermediary between Lavitola and the men who planted the device, remains at large and is believed to be in Africa. Four others, accused of actually carrying out the bombing, were arrested on 30 June; three are in pre-trial detention and one is under house arrest. The attack The bomb exploded on the night of 16 October 2025 outside Ranucci's home in Campo Ascolano, near Pomezia, south of Rome, destroying his car and one belonging to his daughter, who had walked past the spot only minutes earlier, and damaging the front gate and a neighbouring wall. Nobody was hurt. Ranucci, 64, presenter of the long-running investigative programme Report on RAI 3, described a rudimentary device that produced two powerful blasts strong enough to have killed anyone nearby. He has lived under police protection since 2021 owing to threats linked to his investigations into the mafia and political and business corruption, and said he had received bullets left outside his house in the past. The attack drew widespread condemnation, including from prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who called it a serious act of intimidation, and from press freedom groups, who described it as one of the most serious attacks on a journalist in Italy in recent years. Rome's anti-mafia prosecutors opened an investigation, treating the case as criminal damage aggravated by mafia-style methods. The alleged motive According to the judge's written ruling, Lavitola did not order the attack to harm Ranucci but to raise his public profile and accelerate his own "political projects". The two men have described each other as friends, and detectives believe Ranucci had no knowledge of the alleged plot. The judge wrote that the plan was for the bombing to appear to the victim and the public as an act of intimidation or a warning over Ranucci's investigations, while in reality being designed never to endanger him, with the aim of boosting the journalist's standing ahead of a possible move into politics and, in turn, securing Lavitola a prominent role in the political landscape that might follow. Prosecutors allege the men who planted the device were paid several thousand euro. When Lavitola's name first emerged as a suspect last month, Ranucci said he did not believe his friend was capable of being behind the attack. He later announced he was suing unnamed commentators and politicians for defamation over claims, made by some on the political right, that the bombing had been staged to benefit him and his TV show. Who is Valter Lavitola A former journalist, publisher and restaurateur, Lavitola has long been a fixture of Italian political scandal. He founded and edited the Socialist newspaper L'Avanti! and was close to the late former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. He was convicted in 2015, alongside Berlusconi, over the alleged bribery of a senator as part of an operation to bring down a centre-left government, and has featured in a string of other cases, including a Monte Carlo property deal that ended the political career of Gianfranco Fini, an attempted extortion attempt against Berlusconi over an escort scandal, and allegations of kickbacks on Panamanian contracts and fraud involving publishing funds. Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi's office is continuing to investigate the case, which is being examined for possible mafia-style aggravating circumstances. Image: Sigfrido Ranucci. Photo credit: photostock360 / Shutterstock.com

WIRE — Investigating judge says Valter Lavitola ordered the Pomezia blast to boost his friend's popularity and further his own political ambitions. Italian police on Monday arrested businessman and former journalist Valter Lavitola on suspicion of ordering last October's bomb attack on the home of RAI investigative reporter Sigfrido Ranucci. Carabinieri detained Lavitola, 60, after a Rome preliminary investigations judge issued a pre-trial detention order accusing him of commissioning the attack. A second suspect, Cameroonian national Gomes Clesio Tavares, 47, alleged to have acted as an intermediary between Lavitola and the men who planted the device, remains at large and is believed to be in Africa. Four others, accused of actually carrying out the bombing, were arrested on 30 June; three are in pre-trial detention and one is under house arrest. The attack The bomb exploded on the night of 16 October 2025 outside Ranucci's home in Campo Ascolano, near Pomezia, south of Rome, destroying his car and one belonging to his daughter, who had walked past the spot only minutes earlier, and damaging the front gate and a neighbouring wall. Nobody was hurt. Ranucci, 64, presenter of the long-running investigative programme Report on RAI 3, described a rudimentary device that produced two powerful blasts strong enough to have killed anyone nearby. He has lived under police protection since 2021 owing to threats linked to his investigations into the mafia and political and business corruption, and said he had received bullets left outside his house in the past. The attack drew widespread condemnation, including from prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who called it a serious act of intimidation, and from press freedom groups, who described it as one of the most serious attacks on a journalist in Italy in recent years. Rome's anti-mafia prosecutors opened an investigation, treating the case as criminal damage aggravated by mafia-style methods. The alleged motive According to the judge's written ruling, Lavitola did not order the attack to harm Ranucci but to raise his public profile and accelerate his own "political projects". The two men have described each other as friends, and detectives believe Ranucci had no knowledge of the alleged plot. The judge wrote that the plan was for the bombing to appear to the victim and the public as an act of intimidation or a warning over Ranucci's investigations, while in reality being designed never to endanger him, with the aim of boosting the journalist's standing ahead of a possible move into politics and, in turn, securing Lavitola a prominent role in the political landscape that might follow. Prosecutors allege the men who planted the device were paid several thousand euro. When Lavitola's name first emerged as a suspect last month, Ranucci said he did not believe his friend was capable of being behind the attack. He later announced he was suing unnamed commentators and politicians for defamation over claims, made by some on the political right, that the bombing had been staged to benefit him and his TV show. Who is Valter Lavitola A former journalist, publisher and restaurateur, Lavitola has long been a fixture of Italian political scandal. He founded and edited the Socialist newspaper L'Avanti! and was close to the late former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. He was convicted in 2015, alongside Berlusconi, over the alleged bribery of a senator as part of an operation to bring down a centre-left government, and has featured in a string of other cases, including a Monte Carlo property deal that ended the political career of Gianfranco Fini, an attempted extortion attempt against Berlusconi over an escort scandal, and allegations of kickbacks on Panamanian contracts and fraud involving publishing funds. Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi's office is continuing to investigate the case, which is being examined for possible mafia-style aggravating circumstances. Image: Sigfrido Ranucci. Photo credit: photostock360 / Shutterstock.com

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