Lin defense of the boys accused of the gang rape in Palermo he had decided to do the shortened one, but conditioned on three precise elements, including the hearing of a person who phoned the victim a few minutes after the group entered the abandoned construction site . The judge rejected two of the requests and so the trial will continue in the ordinary court
THE six guys of Palermo accused of having raped, on 7 July last, a 19 year oldin an abandoned construction site in the Foro Italico in Palermo, have given up on abbreviated procedure. Their fate will therefore be played out all in one hearingin which it will also be possible to listen to the alleged victim again.
Rape of Palermo: the requests (not accepted) of the defendants
The young people, Angelo Flores, Cristian Barone, Gabriele Di Trapani, Christian Maronia, Samuele La Grassa, and Elio Arnao, who are accused of gang rape, renounced the shortened sentence after the preliminary hearing judge’s no to some requests on which they had conditioned the choice of the alternative rite.
They had initially chosen the shortened one, which allows them to obtain a discount of one third of the sentence in the event of conviction, subject to three specific conditions. The preliminary hearing judge accepted only one and hence the defense’s decision to renounce the alternative procedure and face a longer and more complex trial in court.
The lawyers of the suspects, all in prison since last summer, had presented three requests: the examination of the victim in the courtroom; the report on his cell phone and the summoning of a friend of the girl who had exchanged phone calls and messages with her on the night of the abuse. The young woman, who now lives in a protected community and who was heard by the judge during an evidentiary incident a few months ago, must not return to the witness stand, said the investigating judge, who also ruled out hearing her friend.
Exchanging messages with a friend
The boy was supposed to testify on a call made to the young woman who was raped at 1.40am on the night of the abuse, time in which the victim was about to reach the construction site in the company of the suspects, and the contents of which are unknown. The lawyers also wanted to ask the witness questions about a message received from the girl at 2 which reads “it can’t be done anymore”, a phrase which according to the defense indicates the cancellation of a previous appointment.
On the night of the rape, when the group of boys had arrived at the abandoned construction site at the Foro Italico, the victim received a phone call at 1.04 am, three minutes after having passed the sheet metal barrier. The call lasted 29 seconds. With the interlocutor’s testimony, the defense would have wanted to know the content of the conversation. The nineteen year old asked for help and she didn’t do it, was she calm or shaken? The call, however, could have occurred before the violence took place even if during the evidentiary incident the victim had said that he had not used his cell phone immediately after the events. The defense would aim to demonstrate that the victim went to the abandoned construction site voluntarily and was not forced to follow the herd encountered at Vucciria.
Rape of Palermo: the defense line
“If the victim had been made drunk, as the prosecution believes, and forced to follow the group, why would he have written a message of that nature instead of asking for help?”, ask the lawyers who would have wanted to listen to the witness on this very point. But the investigating judge, who only admitted the report on the telephone, said no. A circumstance that led to the waiver of the summary and the choice of a defense in the hearing which will also involve the summoning of the victim and his friend to testify.
The line of the prosecution: “Victim drugged and drunk”
The girl’s lawyer, Carla Garofalo, explained that “there is an incoming phone call around 1pm from a person, who up to now has not been involved in the trial, which lasted a few seconds and a message from my client around at two o’clock. It would be these the evidence that would undermine the credibility of the young woman I assist. Apart from the fact that she was groggy, drugged and drunk and she may not remember anything, during the violence her cell phone fell several times and it would have been Angelo Flores who held it and answered it.”
The risk of secondary victimization
The lawyer of the 19-year-old who was allegedly raped in Palermo accused the defense of the six young people of wanting to discredit the victim. “In any case, the defense strategy is clear – you said she-she, to discredit the victim as we have seen in many trials. We are trying to put it into practice secondary victimization in order to make my client lose her nerves and get into contradictions.” Issues that will now be addressed in the hearing starting from May 15th. And before the court there will also be the civil parties which are the Municipality of Palermo, Millecolori onlus, the national association Women in network against violence, Le Onde, the Women’s Library consultancy centre, the association Insieme a Marianna Aps, the association against all violence and La Casa di Venere.
A minor convicted of the Palermo rape
The seventh boy involved in the Palermo rape, who at the time of the events had not yet turned 18, has already been sentenced in summary form by the investigating judge of the juvenile court to 8 years and 8 months, a more serious penalty than the prosecutor’s requests. The magistrate, shortly after his arrest, released him and entrusted him to a community seeing in him a sort of repentance. But a few days after leaving the cell the boy began publishing posts on social media in which he boasted of the abuse he had committed. A behavior that pushed the judge to order the suspect again precautionary custody in prison.
