They have been accused of carrying and using an explosive device in a public place, as well as criminal damage and issuing threats.
Italian police have arrested the alleged perpetrators of a bomb attack that targeted Sigfrido Ranucci, an investigative journalist for the programme Report.
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The attack occurred in October at his home near Pomezia, not far from Rome.
The four individuals are subject to precautionary custody measures and are accused of carrying and using an explosive device in a public place, as well as criminal damage and issuing threats. The offences are said to have been aggravated as they allegedly acted as part of a group of more than five people and used mafia-style methods.
The group is believed to have been hired to carry out the attack.
The individuals include a young couple from Avella - Pellegrino D'Avino, who was detained by the Carabianieri in Rome before being transferred to Rebibbia prison, and his wife, Marika De Filippi, who is under house arrest at their home - as well as Saverio Mutone and Antonio Passariello.
According to the preliminary investigation judge, the group acted "on the orders of a person who has not yet been identified in planning and preparing the criminal act".
Passariello is believed to have procured the car and the other three carried out reconnaissance in the days leading up to the attack.
Passariello and Mutone are then accused of "planting and detonating the explosive device mentioned above outside the home of Sigfrido Ranucci".
According to the investigators’ reconstruction, they had already carried out other contract jobs, but the judge stressed that "it must be noted that, in this case, the way the device was placed does not allow the conclusion that the aim was to kill".
Sigfrido Ranucci
In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Ranucci said: "I have been waiting for this moment since the day of the attack. I had no doubt it would come (...) From what I understand, there are those who organised it, those who were complicit, those who provided legal assistance, those who tried to destroy the SIM cards".
"But this story seems to show once again that there is a part of the state that works, that protects its citizens, that does its job properly. Luckily," he added.
An anonymous email sent on 6 April to Rome prosecutor Carlo Villani named Passariello as the person who conducted the attack. It claimed the operation was carried out without informing the criminal group linked to him.
In the message, quoted by the Italian news agency Adnkronos as cited in the custody order, the author said that Antonio had allegedly been accompanied by a young man called Luca, who lives at his address.
The text said that the two boasted "from morning till night" of having set off the bomb "on behalf of the Moccia clan". However, the judge’s order noted that "at this stage, no evidence has emerged that Passariello belongs to the criminal milieu of the Moccia clan of Afragola".
Journalists’ unions express solidarity
The National Federation of the Italian Press has issued a statement saying it was ready to join the case as a civil party in any trial against the arrested individuals.
It added that "the FNSI is aware that the investigation is not yet over. We hope that as soon as possible it will lead to further developments and to the identification of those who ordered the attack and the motives behind the act against the journalist".
Usigrai, the RAI journalists’ union, also published a press release expressing its "satisfaction at the progress made in the investigation into the attack," adding that the aim was to strike "the whole world of investigative journalism and Article 21 of the Constitution, confirming the fears voiced by major international watchdogs, which place Italy ever lower in the rankings on press freedom".