Page 18 - IAV Digital Magazine #470

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Italy Outraged As Court Finds Victim Too Ugly To Be Raped
By Nicole Winfield
ROME - Italy’s Justice Ministry has ordered a preliminary inquiry into an appeals court rul- ing that over- turned a rape verdict in part by arguing that the woman who was attacked was too ugly to be a cred- ible rape victim.
The ruling has sparked outrage in Italy, prompting a flash mob Monday outside the Ancona court,
where protesters shouted “Shame!” and held up signs saying “indigna- tion.”
The appeals sen- tence was hand- ed down in 2017 — by an all- female panel — but the reasons behind it only emerged publicly when Italy’s high court annulled it on March 5 and ordered a retrial. The Court of Cassation said Wednesday its own reasons for ordering the retri- al will be issued
next month.
Two
Peruvian men were initially con- victed of the 2015 rape of a Peruvian woman in Ancona, but the Italian appeals court overturned the verdict and absolved them, finding that she was not a credi- ble witness. In part of the ruling, the court noted that the suspects had found her unattractive and too “masculine” to be a credible
rape victim.
Cinzia Molinaro, a lawyer for the victim, said her appeal to the Cassation con- tested a host of procedural prob- lems with the acquittal verdict but said she had also cited the “absolute unac- ceptability” of the Italian court’s ref- erence to the vic- tim’s physical appearance.
The appeals sen- tence quoted one of the suspects as saying he
found the woman unattractive and had her listed as “Viking” on his cellphone.
Molinaro noted that the woman, who has since returned to Peru, had suffered such genital trauma in the rape that she required stitches.
The Justice Ministry said it was conducting the “necessary preliminary inves- tigations” into the appeals verdict. Molinaro said the ministry can send
investigators to a court to check if there were any problems or omissions in the sentence, even when the case is still under appeal.
The case is the second to spark criticism in recent weeks in Italy, where cases of sexual violence and the murders of women regu- larly top the news.
Protests broke out earlier this month after an appeals court in Bologna nearly cut in half the sentence for a man who admit- ted to killing his partner. The court cited as one of its reasons for the reduction the “emotional storm” of jealousy that the killer experi- enced. Critics said the reduced sentence basical- ly sanctioned the practice of “honor killings.”
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine