CATANIA. «I beg you, I beg you, don't hurt me, let me go…» The torment of what is little more than a little girl faced with a furious, brutal attack: the thirteen-year-old abused in Catania had tried to stop her attackers by asking for mercy, but she failed. The seven boys, three minors, all of Egyptian origin, have moved on: they are now under arrest, some in the community, some under house arrest, some in prison, like the four adults. There were also seven in Palermo last summer, among them a seventeen-year-old: the victim was 19, they were Italians, originally from the Sicilian capital.
The geographical origin changes, the nationality changes, not the ways and criminal capacity. And it doesn't even change the courage of the denunciation by those who were forced to suffer, in Palermo in July, in Catania in recent days.
Thirteen year old gang raped in Catania: the bathrooms of Villa Bellini where the violence took place
The victim from Catania recognized all the suspects: two would be those who raped her, one of whom is a minor. The second has recently come of age: his position will therefore be dealt with by the District Attorney's Office. One after another, in the presence of the magistrates, she was shown the detainees, behind shielded glass, in a protected structure. They couldn't see her but she had enough certainties for two of the suspects, about the others – demonstrating great maturity – she said she wasn't sure, that she didn't want to accuse innocent people.
However, the elements of accusation would also be there for the others: one of the Egyptian boys collaborated, the girl's seventeen-year-old boyfriend, immobilized and forced to witness the abuse, also recognized some of the attackers. Then there is the DNA: three biological samples were taken from the victim's clothing and one is from her, one from a person arrested, the third has not been attributed and later the DNA of the young man who has yet to be subjected to confrontation with the abused adolescent.
The rape by two members of the group took place in the central Villa Bellini in Catania. The facts date back to January 30th and the Carabinieri conducted a lightning investigation, under the coordination of the District Attorney's Office, led by the acting Agata Santonocito, with the deputy Sebastiano Ardita and the deputy Anna Trinchillo; Also involved is the Prosecutor's Office for minors, directed by Carla Santocono. The soldiers involved in the two parallel investigations are from the investigative unit of the provincial command of Catania, in collaboration with the operational unit of the Piazza Dante Company and the Piazza Verga station. The role played by the Scientific Investigations section of Catania and the RIS of Messina was decisive. Tomorrow. on Monday, the hearing to validate the arrests has been set.
The raped young woman from Palermo: “I relived that night”
«When I found out about the 13-year-old girl raped in Catania by seven boys I felt enormous pain, it was like reliving what had happened to me». These are the words of Asia, the young woman who was also the victim of a gang rape at the Foro Italico in Palermo last July. You express all your “solidarity and understanding” towards the victim of this latest violence. «I know well what it feels like because I experienced it first hand. Not a day goes by without me thinking about that cursed night…” But Asia, 19 years old at the time, also underlines that she was subjected to what she defines as a real media “lynching”. «Things that are not true have been written about my story – she says. They tried to smear me, to make me look like an easy girl that she went looking for. I can't leave the house because I get insulted in the street. People don't realize that it's not a soap opera but a person's life being destroyed.”
Ilaria Cucchi: “No ethnic exploitation”
«Yet another rape and yet another ethnic exploitation. All this is unacceptable – says the senator of the Green and Left Alliance, Ilaria Cucchi, in a note -. They rape men who are children of a criminal culture who also belong to our country. Guaranteeism only comes into play for excellent defendants and, when this happens, it debases the value of the dignity of the women who become victims of it. An iron fist always and not just when it's convenient.”
The reactions of politicians
In these hours, there have been many reactions of indignation and anger. «Horror, degradation, madness. The Catania affair, with a thirteen-year-old girl raped by a gang of seven Egyptian boys in the municipal gardens of Villa Bellini, gives us an extremely worrying social cross-section”, commented today Matilde Siracusano, undersecretary for Relations with Parliament and Forza MP Italy. «Stories of this type are inexorably repeated throughout the country. Group sexual violence, abuse of the weakest, subjugation of women, who are increasingly smaller and more defenseless. We expect those responsible for this atrocity to pay for what they have done. There are no justifications for what happened, a fury of this type on the part of children, even minors, cannot be imagined.”
Basilio Catanoso, deputy regional coordinator of FdI in Sicily, says he is: “disconcerted by the story”. He asks to “tighten the punishments for those responsible for sexual violence crimes, in this case even on minors”. «Enough – he adds – with hypocritical “do-goodism” and letting things happen: let the State be the State».
The minors' prosecutor
In an interview with Sicilian newspaper the chief prosecutor at the Juvenile Court of Palermo, Claudia Caramanna, maintains that «at the basis of everything there is the bitter observation that young people are increasingly violent and that they behave towards women as if they were objects. They have no empathy for the victims, they don't understand the suffering they can cause and in any case they don't care at all.” You mention the violence suffered last July 7 by a nineteen-year-old from Palermo: «From the news I have read, the two events seem very similar. Social media have acted as a sounding board for negative models: almost everyone, in fact, makes videos and then posts them to show their friends what they have done – he underlines – But, thanks to the Caivano decree, something is changing, it no longer exists that feeling of impunity for being minors: now we can intervene by arresting those guilty of serious crimes.”
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