The trial in which the 6 boys accused of raping a 19-year-old girl last July at the Foro Italico will begin on May 15th in Palermo. Lawyer Rotigliano (DiRe Association): “Secondary victimization avoided with the no to the abbreviated procedure. It will be a big process, the outcome and duration are unpredictable.”
The next one will start May 15th the trial in which the six boys accused of raping a 19-year-old girl in July 2023 at the Foro Italico in Palermo. The young people had asked for the victim to be heard again, and had linked the request for admission to the abbreviated procedure to this condition. But, having been rejected by the magistrate Cristina Lo Buethe process will take place with ordinary rite.
There are 7 associations admitted as civil parties to the proceedings. Among these, the national association of women online against violence (To say), represented by the lawyer Elvira Rotigliano, that a Fanpage.it explained why it is important to keep attention high on this case and also why the trial risks being “unpredictable” in terms of outcome and duration.
Because the Di.Re. Association have you decided to become a civil party in this trial?
Gang rape in Palermo, the trial begins for the six boys: Gruppo wants to hear from the victim again
“We wanted to give a further message of closeness and solidarity but also of concreteness. It is one of DiRe’s objectives, it is written in our statute, and that is to be visibly present in the processes to monitor the state of the art on what happens when the victims of violence are women, placing themselves as sentinels to counter and prevent all forms of secondary victimization which unfortunately occur and which occur in proceedings when it is the women who as victims are placed in a position of accusation against them with respect to what happened. We want to give a signal: we are here, we are present, we observe and monitor Palermo at the moment is a showcase from this point of view.”
In what sense?
“The Palermo case hit the headlines for its brutality, but also for the very young age of the perpetrators and for the ferocity with which they attacked the victim’s body despite dissent having been more than evident from the beginning. And unfortunately in Palermo, as often happens, there are prejudices. The city has split over what happened. Many have rallied around the accused, almost discrediting the victim and starting to investigate his personal life, his past and his family. They stigmatized the very fact that this young woman found herself in a context where “girls from good families” do not come, as if her freedom had been a contributing cause of what happened. We want to undermine these prejudices.”
The defendants had requested an abbreviated trial. Then what happened?
“It happened that these guys had asked for an abbreviated trial, with a series of conditions, including one that was inadmissible in the opinion of all of us who defend women in criminal trials. That is, they wanted to hear the girl again, who has already been heard 7 times in the course of the investigations. We opposed this request considering it yet another form of victimization. And even the judge who rejected the request for summary recognition acknowledged the fact that a condition of secondary victimization of the girl would have been created, which the convention of Istanbul requires prevention. Since one of these requests has failed, the defendants have requested a trial.”
And the first hearing will take place on May 15th. What do you expect?
“On that date we will find out who the witnesses requested by the defendants are. But there is not much to expect. There will be preliminary questions and it will be dedicated to the presentation of the evidence, then the panel will decide whether to admit or exclude them and will create a calendar of hearings. I believe that the outcome and duration of the process are unpredictable. It is a big process, with six positions to consider.
