Italian media report another case of feminicide. On the outskirts of Milan, an ex-fiancé stabbed 20-year-old Sofia Castelli in her own bedroom. The man struck several blows to the neck, the woman did not survive. According to the police, the killer broke into the apartment of the former partner and hid in her wardrobe when she was with her friend at the club.
The tragedy happened in the early morning of Saturday, July 29 in Cologno Monzese, a suburb of Milan. According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, 20-year-old Sofia Castelli lived with her parents and younger brother on a daily basis, but on the weekend of the murder, the three of them went to a wedding in Sardinia. Sofia was left alone at home and on Friday evening went with a friend to one of the clubs in the western part of Milan.
“La Repubblica”, citing the findings of the investigators, reports that 23-year-old Zakaria Atqaoui, Sofia’s former fiancé, appeared in the same club, but did not leave it with the women, only earlier. The man drove to the Castelli family’s apartment. According to the preliminary findings of the police, Atqaoui got inside using a key he had stolen earlier. According to the newspaper “La Stampa”, Sofia’s former partner came to her on Friday morning under the pretext of bringing her a gift. As he left, he took a bunch of keys hanging by the door with him.
According to the La Repubblica article, after breaking into the apartment, the 23-year-old entered the wardrobe in Sofia’s bedroom and waited for the girl to return home. He had taken a knife from the kitchen earlier. A friend with whom she had been to the club came to her apartment for the night with the 20-year-old. She went to sleep in another room. Atqaoui himself explained to investigators that he came out of the closet and attacked Sofia when she went to bed. He murdered her by giving her several blows to the neck.
According to Italian media, after killing Sofia, the 23-year-old went to the police station and confessed to the murder. “I heard her talking to a friend about boys and I got angry,” he told Atqaoui officials, according to La Stampa. Investigators have not yet released what charges the man will face. It is possible that he will be charged with premeditated murder.
The news portal Fanpage.it reports that Atqaoui and Castelli were a couple for about three years. They broke up about two weeks before the murder.
Italy. Violence against women
In Italy, there are many homicides of women, the motive of which is jealousy or suspicions of infidelity. In May we wrote in tvn24.pl about a 45-year-old resident of Puglia who fatally stabbed his daughter when she tried to defend her mother. A man attacked his wife because he suspected she was cheating on him with a neighbor. His five-year-old son was then hidden behind the couch.
Covering the case, the Catholic daily Avvenire noted that the five-year-old had become “one of the 100-120 children or teenagers who witness the murder of a woman in the home each year.” He added that “every three days a child in Italy is experiencing a family tragedy”, and the indicated number “is probably underestimated anyway, because there is no register of this phenomenon, although the associations that deal with it have been calling for such a register for years”. in 2022, 125 women were murdered in Italy.
“La Repubblica”, “La Stampa”, Fanpage.it
Main photo source: twitter.com/Arma dei Carabinieri