Gang rape in Palermo, nine associations and the Municipality ask to be a civil party

The first act of the preliminary hearing for the six adult boys accused of raping the nineteen-year-old from Palermo on the night of July 7th in an abandoned construction site in the Foro Italico in Palermo lasted less than an hour. The gup Cristina Lo Bue the Municipality of Palermo and nine associations against gender violence and for the protection of vulnerable subjects reserved the right to decide on the request for conditional summary judgment made by the defenders of the six suspects and on the admission of the civil parties. The victim, assisted by the lawyer Carla Garofalo, was not present in the courtroom on the ground floor of the courthouse. The girl is in the shelter home where she was taken after the attack she experienced on Easter Monday night in Ballarò. The trial takes place behind closed doors. The defendants are Angelo Flores, Cristian Barone, Gabriele Di Trapani, Christian Maronia, Samuele La Grassa, Elio Arnao. And they are all in prison. The prosecution in the courtroom is represented by the prosecutors Giulia Amodeo And Mario Calabrese.

The only member of the group who had not yet turned 18 at the time of the rape was already sentenced for the rape on March 5 by the juvenile court judge. The judge Maria Pino imposed a sentence of 8 years and 8 months on him (already reduced by a third due to the choice of the abbreviated procedure). At the start of the hearing, the associations requested that the Millecolori, Women online against violence, Le Onde, Women’s Library, Together with Marianna, Emily, Mezzocielo Association against all violence, The house of Venus and Mete. There is also the Municipality of Palermo who asked to join the civil action. The judge will dissolve the reservation at the next hearing scheduled for April 29.

Before the start of the hearing, the victim’s lawyer described the nightmare she experiences every day, even just leaving the house. «The girl is in a shelter but I can’t say where. She has ups and downs, moments of anguish, of hope – says Carla Garofalo – Luckily we have a good relationship, she gives me carte blanche on everything. She trusts. He is picking up the pieces of all the ruin around her with the constant aggression. And sometimes she wonders who made her do it. She receives constant threats and attacks which do not make her calm » The lawyers of the six suspects have announced that they will ask for a summary judgment conditioned by a new examination of the victim. The prosecution opposed the request to hear the girl for a second time after the situation had been crystallized in recent months in the evidentiary incident with the victim and her attackers. According to the prosecution, a new test would make the victim relive the nightmare of that night for the third time. The defenders of the six boys who want to hear the victim in the courtroom in light of all the defense investigations carried out in nine months have a completely different opinion. In particular, there are dialogues and contacts during and immediately after the violence about which the defense wants to hear from the young woman.

“The shortened sentence is not only conditioned on hearing from the victim but also on other elements that we don’t want to reveal for now” the defenders say in chorus at the end of the hearing. If the judge does not admit the conditional summary, the defendants will have to choose whether to have the “dry” summary or the ordinary trial. It is possible that without being able to hear the victim again on the basis of their investigations, the defenses choose the trial, which, even without the discount of a third of the sentence, guarantees much more room for maneuver to lighten the individual positions of the accused. The defense have already handed over a file to the magistrates with two videos, one of which was filmed in Vucciria which would show Asia first paying for a drink and then inviting the group to watch some scenes on her mobile phone where she has sex with other people. In the other, instead, the images of the cameras, placed along the route towards the Foro Italico, would highlight that she would have been at the head of the group and, despite crossing streets full of people, she would not have shown any sign of fear, nor would she have asked for help.

For this reason the six maintain that the victim agreed to seclude himself with them. A completely opposite version compared to that of the twenty-year-old who instead has always reiterated that the relationship was never consensual and that she had shouted “enough” asking her parents tormentors to stop. “All the things that were published in recent months were the defense investigations by the defendants’ lawyers and were published before they were even admitted to the trial. With all the rubbish that was inside – reports Carla Garofalo – The defense aims to say that there was consent from the young woman. This is literature, they do it in all rape trials, this thesis is untenable because there are videos that speak for themselves.”