Further in-depth analyses of Valter Lavitola's PC and cell phone will be conducted over the next few weeks, along with a summons for Sigfrido Ranucci to the Prosecutor's Office as a person informed of the facts, possibly in September. These are the two new phases now opening in the investigation into the attack on the editor of Report . In the coming days, the Prosecutor's Office will also request the extradition of Lavitola's handyman, Cameroonian citizen Gomes Tavares, currently a fugitive , who allegedly mediated the bombing. In an interview with Tg1, Gomes said he is ready to return "very soon" despite the pre-trial detention order against him: "They say they'll catch me at the airport, but I'm stubborn. And I want to go back."

Lavitola, who admitted to instigating the attack and organizing the entire operation to increase his friend's security detail , remains in prison, but there are still many unclear questions surrounding the case. In the last few hours, legal sources have leaked a statement, already denied by the Rome Prosecutor's Office, according to which Lavitola stated he did not rule out Ranucci's knowledge of his plan. The question therefore arises as to whether the former fixer is developing a new defense strategy that could ease his position. But the RAI journalist's attitude has not changed one iota even now, and Ranucci's conviction that his friend was behind the attack appears to have only grown as the investigation unraveled the accusation.

Sources inside Rebibbia prison say Lavitola is apparently calm and quiet, spending most of his time lying on his cot, meditating in his cell. Last Wednesday, the investigating judge rejected his defense attorney's request for house arrest at the end of the preliminary hearing, but his lawyers could appeal to the Court of Appeal, requesting a re-interrogation. Even in that case, further developments cannot be ruled out at this point. The 60-year-old has ruled out the possibility of his motive being tied to his political plan for Ranucci, his ambition to bring him to Palazzo Chigi within a few years and carve out a role for himself as a spin doctor . La Repubblica editor Stefano Cappellini (whose name appears on Lavitola's arrest warrant regarding the passages regarding the statistical research) has also weighed in on this aspect in recent hours, recounting in his newspaper "the genesis of the poll with which Lavitola intended to test Ranucci's electoral potential." Cappellini explains that he met Lavitola three times for work reasons. At the third meeting, requested by the entrepreneur, in late February 2026 at his restaurant, Lavitola told him that he was in contact with a highly respected and popular person who might be interested in entering politics and that he intended to commission a survey for him. He then asked for advice on the questions to ask in the test. Only later, when Lavitola revealed Ranucci's name, Cappellini immediately wrote: "To me, this is crazy. It has no chance of taking off."

The journalist emerges from this exchange with a conviction: "This isn't serious. The story of the American poll doesn't add up, nor does the Italian poll, the candidate for prime minister is implausible, and the source is unreliable." For this reason, he adds, "after a minimal investigation, we're not writing anything. And thank goodness for that. Because today, a piece about Ranucci as a candidate would have been exploited by the many vultures out there as evidence of complicity with Lavitola's plan."

Meanwhile, the lawyers for the gang behind the October 16, 2025, attack—which Lavitola believed was "purely demonstrative" and, in his words, was carried out using "various methods," including firing gunshots at a wall—have met with their clients in prison and will file a request for them to be questioned by the prosecutors of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate beginning next week.

(Unioneonline)

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