Life sentence requested in femicide that shocked Italy

Rome: An Italian prosecutor requested a life sentence Monday for a university student who admitted to killing his ex girlfriend in a high profile case...

Rome: An Italian prosecutor requested a life sentence Monday for a university student who admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend in a high-profile case that sparked nationwide outrage and debate over femicide.

Prosecutor Andrea Petroni told a Venice court that Filippo Turetta, 22, had acted with "particular brutality" in stabbing Giulia Cecchettin to death and leaving her body in a ravine in November 2023, local news agencies reported.

The request for a life sentence came on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, an event marked by a protest of more than 100,000 people in Rome on Saturday, many of them marching in Cecchettin's name.

Turetta -- who was in court Monday -- has admitted to stabbing Cecchettin, a 22-year-old biomedical engineering student at the University of Padua, after she sought to break off their relationship.

Petroni told the court that Turetta's relationship with Cecchettin was based on "strong pressure" and "control" over his ex-girlfriend. He asked the court to impose aggravating circumstances of acting with cruelty and premeditation.