Life sentence requested in femicide that shocked Italy

An Italian prosecutor requested a life sentence Monday for a university student who admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend in a high-profile case that sparked nationwide outrage and debate over femicide.

Prosecutor Andrea Petroni told a Venice court that Filippo Turetta, 22, had acted with "particular brutality" in stabbing Giulia Cecchettin to death and leaving her body in a ravine in November 2023, local news agencies reported.

The request for a life sentence came on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, an event marked by a protest of more than 100,000 people in Rome on Saturday, many of them marching in Cecchettin's name.

Turetta -- who was in court Monday -- has admitted to stabbing Cecchettin, a 22-year-old biomedical engineering student at the University of Padua, after she sought to break off their relationship.

Petroni told the court that Turetta's relationship with Cecchettin was based on "strong pressure" and "control" over his ex-girlfriend. He asked the court to impose aggravating circumstances of acting with cruelty and premeditation.

A verdict is expected on December 3.

At the trial's opening, Turetta's lawyer Giovanni Caruso warned the court against a "media trial" and said his client "must not become the face of a cultural battle against gender violence".

Cecchettin, who was due to graduate just days after her death, was reported missing on November 11.

Police launched a week-long manhunt after video surveillance footage captured Turetta attacking her violently before fleeing with her in his car.

Her body was found on November 18 in a gully near Lake Barcis, north of Venice. She had been stabbed at least 75 times, the prosecutor said.

Turetta was arrested a day later on the side of the road near Leipzig in Germany, after his car ran out of petrol.

- Cultural roots -

The murder of Cecchettin triggered outrage and soul-searching in Italy, a majority-Catholic country where traditional gender roles still hold sway and where sexist behaviour by men is often downplayed.

Last week, Italy's education minister Giuseppe Valditara sparked controversy by claiming that "male domination no longer exists" and blaming violence against women on immigrants.

In another femicide trial, a court in Milan on Monday sentenced another man, Alessandro Impagnatiello, to life in prison for the murder of his pregnant fiancee Giulia Tramontano in May 2023.

So far this year, there have been 84 femicides in Italy, according to official statistics.

Human rights groups and women's associations have accused the hard-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of not doing enough to address violence against women.

Meloni, Italy's first female premier, said Monday that legislation was not lacking in Italy but that "the challenge remains above all cultural".

Amnesty International's Italian branch wrote in a statement that "little or nothing has been done to work on the roots of the (femicide) problem."

It called for a "serious and widespread investment in education in emotional relationships between girls and boys from childhood".