Arrests made after bomb attack targets investigative journalist threatened by Italian mafia

Italian police on Tuesday arrested four people suspected of carrying out an October bomb attack targeting a prominent journalist who had been threatened by the mafia.

The blast in a residential neighborhood of Pomezia, about 12 miles south of Rome, destroyed two cars belonging to Sigfrido Ranucci, known for investigations into corruption and the mafia. Ranucci had just returned home at the time, and his daughter had walked by a half-hour before, his employer said at the time.

Video shot by Ranucci, who has been under police protection since 2021 because of his hard-hitting investigations, showed the mangled remains of the cars and the gate.

The Carabinieri police said the four suspects detained near Naples were “strongly suspected… of the offences of possessing, carrying and using explosive devices in a public place, of making threats and causing damage, with aggravating circumstances due to having acted in a group of more than five people and using mafia-style methods.” 

Three of them have been placed in pre-trial detention and the fourth is under house arrest.

Ranucci, the host of investigative program “Report” on the Rai 3 public TV station, told the ANSA news agency the day after the attack that he had received “an endless list of threats.”

Report posted a video on social media Tuesday showing the suspects being arrested.

“The investigation continues to reach the masterminds,” Report wrote in a post on X.

The probe into the blast, handled by the anti-mafia prosecutor’s office in Rome, has been “particularly complex,” the Carabinieri said in its statement. It involved close examination of video surveillance systems and phone records, as well as scientific analysis of the explosive device.

The bomb team are believed to have acted on orders from “third parties, who have not yet been identified,” the statement said.

“The masterminds tried to provide support to protect the alleged perpetrators, supplying them with funds, dedicated phone cards, legal assistance, and planning their possible escape abroad,” the statement said.

The explosion targeting Ranucci occurred on the eighth anniversary of the car bomb slaying of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who wrote extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles. Like Ranucci, she had faced dozens of libel suits intended to silence her reporting. 

According to the campaign group Reporters Without Borders, Italy ranks 56th in the world for press freedom.