Heba Press – Italy
Italian media reported that an Italian court recently sentenced a Moroccan citizen to 25 years in prison for committing sex crimes in the city of Reggio Emilia.
According to the same sources, the case concerns a 48-year-old immigrant, accused in December 2005 of having raped Ms. Franca Ganassi, then aged 60. The ruling came 19 years after he committed the crime, when he was charged with premeditated murder, sexual assault and robbery.
This decision gives the accused the right to contest and appeal, emphasizing that the crime remained mysterious for 15 years, due to the absence of forensic evidence to clearly identify the perpetrator.
In May 2020, the police, in coordination with the deputy prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Maria Rita Pantani, discovered traces of semen on the victim’s clothes. After analyzing the sample and comparing it with approximately two hundred other biological samples, a match was made to the defendant’s DNA, discovered in a cigarette and a cup of coffee in Morocco during his interrogation after a judicial commission.
Eventually, he was arrested and admitted his responsibility for the crime, justifying his act by claiming that he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time of its commission, while he had attacked the victim with a sharp object.
