Ranucci, under fire from prosecutors and colleagues, files suit for defamation and breach of confidentiality.

Rome – Valter Lavitola is under scrutiny by the Rome Prosecutor's Office for the attack on Sigfrido Ranucci, as well as for the former publisher, entrepreneur, and fixer's dealings with Report journalists and the victim of the raid.

In this phase of the investigation, which is aimed at uncovering the motive behind last October's attack, Ranucci and Lavitola appear to be central. Prosecutors from the Rome DDA (Anti-Mafia Investigation Department) want to determine the reasons behind Valter Lavitola's presence in the Report editorial office and how often this occurred. They also want to analyze the numerous interviews the entrepreneur has given in recent days to determine whether messages addressed to someone were behind them. These findings support the belief that Lavitola may have instigated the raid carried out by the four arrested suspects from the provinces of Naples and Avellino.

 Prosecutors investigate Lavitola's presence in the RAI studios

Important answers are expected in the coming hours from the analysis of the cell phones and USB drives seized from Lavitola during the July 4th search of his home in Monteverde. Shortly before, the Carabinieri had seen the former publisher leaving with a suitcase, leaving for Cameroon, where his handyman, Gomes Clesio Tavares, is being held. According to investigators, Tavares was the intermediary for the gang that planted the bomb.

First of all, there appears to be a rift between Ranucci, the Rome prosecutor's office, and the investigators regarding leaked information about the investigation. So much so that the journalist, through his lawyer, Roberto De Vita, has filed a defamation suit.

It's not just the judicial implications of the affair that are in the spotlight these days

"In relation to the dissemination of statements, press articles, conjectures, and insinuations that have transformed, through explicit allusions, the victim of the serious attack into its alleged beneficiary, through expressions that assert or suggest a 'fake attack' and other similar formulations and consequent advantages, whose human and professional repercussions are of unprecedented gravity, Sigfrido Ranucci has filed a complaint and a complaint for aggravated defamation and other crimes," the lawyer said.

A few hours later, the same lawyer announced a second complaint on behalf of Ranucci and some of the Report journalists, which "does not concern the publication by the journalists but the revelation made by individuals bound by secrecy," the lawyer says.

Therefore, Ranucci and the journalists at Report are requesting that the Rome prosecutor's office investigate for "disclosure of official and investigative secrecy." The action concerns "the disclosure of information and extracts from documents, covered by investigative secrecy, and in particular," the criminal lawyer explains, "the contents of wiretapped telephone conversations, drafts, and minutes of summary witness information, relating to the ongoing and extremely sensitive investigation into the serious bombing attack against Ranucci, with subsequent publication in the newspapers Il Domani and La Verità, resulting in serious prejudice to the investigation, increased exposure to risk, and reputational damage due to the partial and instrumental use of distorted narratives."

“Revelation of official secrecy and investigative secrecy”.

In addition to the investigative front, questions about the ties and interests between Ranucci and Lavitola, and between them and the motive and the attackers, there is also a broad political and journalistic front that the Report journalist must address. The press articles have now been joined by doubts raised by Massimo Giletti, who has been digging into Ranucci's wounds for days. In a video posted on Instagram, the host of "Lo stato delle cose" claims that a certain "Corrado," a name revealed in wiretaps, plays a key role in this affair. Giletti analyzes Ranucci's words immediately after the attack and after Lavitola's involvement, arguing that the attack victim subsequently softened his stance.

A row that is dividing the Italian journalism world into those who believe he is guilty and those who believe he is innocent, but not with regard to the alleged perpetrators of the attack or the alleged instigator, but with regard to Ranucci and his friendship with the fixer Lavitola.

Giletti names a certain Corrado

On the journalistic-political front, the attack by Maurizio Belpietro, editor of La Verità, appeared this morning in an editorial and an article by Carlo Cambi, which claimed that a Report investigation into the purchase of protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic was censored and removed from the Raiplay website.

Regarding this matter, Sigfrido Ranucci responded directly to his colleagues at La Verità with a post on his Facebook profile: “Today, the newspaper La Verità, with an editorial by director Maurizio Belpietro and an article by Carlo Cambi, claims that a Report investigation into the purchase of protective equipment during Covid was censored by me and removed from the Raiplay website.

Given that Report has no jurisdiction over Raiplay, which has an independent structure and management, the facts are untrue. The contested episode, "The Chinese Commission," aired on January 11, 2021, is available on our website in full text.

"The video," explains the host of 'Report', "isn't there simply because it contained footage produced in China, whose rights expire after five years, as per the contract with the company that supplied us with the footage. Other investigations, such as Mascheropoli and Affari di Covid, which shed light on the decisions of trusted government officials at the time, are still available on our website," says Ranucci, attaching links to the videos of the reports.

"Furthermore," he concludes, "it seems strange that Report should have censored the splendid investigations conducted by Rosa Maria Aquino, which, as is easily seen, are already in the records of the Commission investigating Covid. And this is a commission to which the Report team, unlike many others who locked themselves away during the virus, made a significant contribution, risking their own health and that of their loved ones."

The censorship issue, raised by Belpietro, was seized upon by the Brothers of Italy commissioners in Vigilanza, who announced a hearing to "clarify the reasons for this disappearance."