Italy: The trial for 22-year-old Julia’s female homicide begins – her ex-boyfriend killed her with 70 stab wounds

The trial for 22-year-old Julia Cheketin, opened to the debate on femaleicides and gender violence, begins and is expected to cause intense interest. 22-year-old Julia, was a graduate of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Padova, when she fell victim to femaleicide by her former partner. Her murder highlighted the phenomenon of femaleicide in Italy, where the vast majority of victims lose their lives in the hands of their current or former comrades. The defendant, Filippo Touretta, 22, has confessed before a judge that he murdered Chequetin. Touretta, who faces up to a life sentence, is not expected to appear today in the Venice court. According to official statistics, a woman is murdered every three days in Italy, a Catholic country in her majority where traditional gender roles continue to dominate and where men’s sexist behavior is often degraded. Cheketin, who was to graduate a few days after her death, was reported missing on November 11 after she had previously met Touretta at a mall from which she never returned home. Visual footage of security cameras near Cheketin’s house showed Touretta attacking her wildly and then boarding her in his car, which signaled an alarm to the police which began looking for her for a week. Her body was finally found on November 18 in a ravine about 120 km north of Venice. He had been stabbed more than 70 times in the head and neck, according to media reports citing the forensic report. Touretta was arrested one day later near Leipzig, Germany when his car ran out of gas. The activists hoped that this women’s murder would be a turning point and so on 25 November hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets throughout Italy to commemorate the “International Day for Eliminating Violence against Women” calling for cultural change. Cheketin’s sister Elena denounces the “patriarchy” and “rape culture” present in Italian society. “The rape culture is the one that legitimizes all behavior that aims to hurt the personality of the woman, starting with those things in which we sometimes don’t even pay attention, such as control, possessivity, disapproval,” he wrote in Corriere della. Sera Elena Cheketin a week after her sister died. At Julia’s funeral in Padova, her father, Gino, called for the death of his daughter “a turning point to end the horrible scourge of violence against women” begging men to “doubt this culture that tends to degrade the violence practiced by men who seem normal”. “I am guilty” The trial is expected to be relatively short with Touretta having waived his right to preliminary hearing after his confession. Touretta faces charges including premeditated homicide and kidnapping as well as others involving the concealment of Cheketin’s body. Excerpts of his testimony before a judge on December 1st were shown last week on Channel 4’s “Quarto Grado” broadcast, in which he appears to confess: “I am responsible, I am guilty. Yes, I am responsible for these actions.” With a calm voice Touretta describes how Cheketin rejected the gift she gave her, a stuffed animal, telling him that she wants to break up, which led to their fight in his car and then she opened the door and left. Then, according to him, he grabbed a knife and stabbed it in her arm pulling her back into the car but she managed to get out again. “ I stabbed her, I don’t know how many, about 10, 12, 13, I don’t know, many times, ‘ Touretta says in the video. According to the interior ministry, 120 women were murdered in Italy last year, including 97 from their relatives or from current and former partners. Comparisons with other European countries are difficult because of contradictory data, but the issue has recently been at the forefront in many European countries, especially France. After the murder of Chequetin the Italian parliament adopted a package of laws that strengthen existing legislation on the protection of women, but activists say cultural change requires much more, starting with compulsory education on this issue in schools. A July 2021 report prepared by the government agency responsible for gender equality found that “in some regions of Italy up to 50% of men consider violence acceptable in the context of a relationship”.