Killer of journalist Luca Esposito held in Salerno, interrogation set for Monday

The interrogation of Ridha Rahmouni and the validation of his detention are scheduled for Monday at Salerno prison. Rahmouni, who was arrested on the night of 25 July in a raid on an abandoned farmhouse, has already given a collaborative confession to Carabinieri, aided by an interpreter. His lawyer, Giovanni Mauri, confirmed the 26-year-old spoke calmly about the events of the night between Saturday 18 July and Sunday 19 July.

The arrest and the evidence

Investigators tracked Rahmouni through cell tower data and a fingerprint left on the boot of Esposito's Lancia, parked a short distance from where the charred body was found. The few cameras in the rural Cioffi area of Eboli captured a man cycling with a torch that night, apparently searching for the exact meeting point. When Carabinieri stormed the derelict building in via Ebonum, Rahmouni tried to barricade himself before surrendering. Inside the makeshift dwelling, officers found Esposito's mobile phone, a prepaid payment card, and a ring believed to be white gold.

The motive and the court narrative

According to sources cited by Il Mattino and Open, Rahmouni told prosecutors that Esposito had become too sexually insistent, and that he was increasingly irritated by the journalist's repeated advances. The suspect claimed Esposito was paying other young foreigners for intimate relations and was demanding the same from him. Rahmouni, who was in Italy without a residence permit and subject to a repatriation order, also invoked religious grounds during questioning, stating that his Muslim faith forbids relations outside marriage. The Salerno public prosecutor's office, led by Raffaele Cantone, has described the killing as the result of a "violent argument that broke out for various reasons" and characterizes the motive as private and personal.

He had become pushy. He took advantage of our state of need to have paid relations.

Phone records show contacts between the two men began on 28 June and intensified significantly on the evening of 18 July and in the early hours of 19 July, the window immediately preceding the murder.

The victim's double life

Esposito, originally from Nocera Superiore and resident in Lancusi, lived a carefully constructed parallel existence. He introduced himself as Luca, a name absent from his official records. He claimed to be a biologist employed by ARPAC, the regional environmental protection agency, and registered with the Order of Biologists. He spoke often of a pharmacist wife named Federica from Caserta, though he would occasionally forget her name and call her something else. ARPAC has firmly denied he was ever an employee. His only official profession was as a freelance journalist and sports pundit, appearing on local broadcasters including OttoChannel.

On the tragic and horrible end of Luca, let a veil fall: if not of silence, at least of proper discretion. On social media, instead, there has been the usual boorish cruelty that defines the virtual square. Luca did not deserve this outrage either.

Neither his two sisters nor his closest friends knew of his private meetings. His sisters, through their lawyer Annalisa Califano, said they are increasingly "stunned" as more details emerge.

Community reaction

Arcigay Salerno has intervened publicly, calling for an end to what it terms a media trial of the victim's presumed private life. "Sexual orientation, real or presumed, does not constitute news and cannot be used as a narrative element to explain a crime," the organization said in a statement.

What happens next

Monday's hearing will determine whether Rahmouni, who landed in Lampedusa in June 2023 and had his residence permit denied 18 months later, remains in custody. He already had a police record under the alias Amed Jamal for squatting in Altavilla Silentina. Investigators expect that further examination of the victim's two mobile phones may provide a fuller picture of the weeks leading up to the murder.