An appeals court in Italy is under severe attack amidst protests after its widely condemned verdict on a rape case involving a Peruvian woman and two Italian men.
Reports say in 2017, an all-female panel of judges overturned an earlier court ruling in 2015 which saw two Italian men sentenced for molesting a Peruvian-born woman. The victim’s name was also not made public under Italian law, however, the court did say she was 22 at the time of the alleged 2015 attack.
The appeals court’s reason for overturning the lower court’s ruling was that the victim (Peruvian woman) was not only too ugly, but also too masculine to be a credible rape victim.
Although the controversial verdict was given about two years ago, its reason was not known until a High Court ordered a retrial on 5th March 2019, prompting widespread condemnation and a protest on Monday outside the Ancona court, with protestors holding placards bearing various inscriptions such as “Shame!” and “indignation”
The Court of Cassation which has ordered a retrial of the case said on Wednesday that its reason for giving the order will be made known in April.
Meanwhile, Italy’s ministry of Justice has reportedly commenced “necessary preliminary investigations” into the controversial appeals court’s ruling.
The unnamed victim’s lawyer, Cinzia Molinaro is reported as saying one of the things she contested in the appeals court’s controversial ruling which is now prompting a retrial is the “absolute unacceptability” of the court’s reference to the victim’s physical appearance as a basis for its verdict.
According to reports, the ruling has since left the victim traumatized.
What is equally intriguing about the controversial verdict if the fact that it was given by an all-female panel of judges, raising the question of where their sense of feminism was.
Watch video of Monday’s protest below:
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