The trial of the six boys from Palermo accused of raping a 19-year-old at the Foro Italico in Milan last July will begin on May 15th. Palermo. The defendants will be judged with ordinary rite.
The six had submitted a request for admission to the abbreviated trial, conditioning the request to a series of new activities including the examination of the victim in the courtroom, which the preliminary hearing judge however rejected. The request was later withdrawn.
A consultation on the girl’s phone
The 19-year-old was heard by the investigating judge of Palermo, Clelia Maltese, during an evidentiary incident two and a half months ago. The judge decided to accept the request to arrange a technical consultation on the girl’s phone, but the defenders still renounced the brief and opted for the trial.
The lawyers of the six accused had also made the summary conditional on the summoning of a friend of the victim to the courtroom who was supposed to report a voice message received from the girl around 1am on the night of the rape. This application was also rejected. In the vocal, which lasts about 29 seconds, the young woman said she was calm, she did not show fear and she told her friend that she was at the Foro Italico and that they would see each other shortly after.
A circumstance which, according to the lawyers of the accused, demonstrates that he was consenting and that he never attempted to attract the attention of passers-by for help while he went with the rapists towards the abandoned construction site where the violence occurred. At two o’clock she the young woman would send another message to her friend saying that she could no longer meet with him. The ordinary trial will begin on May 15th.
The victim’s lawyer: they try to discredit her
«There is an incoming phone call around one from a person who until today has not entered the phases of this process, which would have lasted a few seconds, and a message from my client around two. This would be the evidence that would undermine the credibility of the young woman I assist. Apart from the fact that the young woman was groggy, drugged and drunk and she may not remember anything.” This is what is stated by the lawyer Carla Garofalo who assists the victim of the rape in an abandoned construction site in the Foro Italico in Palermo which occurred on 7 July and for which six young people are accused. One has already been sentenced by the juvenile court judge.
«During the violence her cell phone fell several times and it would have been Angelo Flores who held it and answered – adds the lawyer – the defense strategy is clear. That of discrediting the victim as we have seen in many trials where women are victims of violence. We are trying to put secondary victimization into practice in order to make the victims lose their nerve and get into contradictions.”
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