Gang rape of a girl shocks Italy – Salvini calls for castration Indian actress pretends to be dead for campaign – sparks heated debate

The brutal act took place a week ago, but the details and initial police findings have only emerged in recent hours. The girl went for a walk with her 17-year-old boyfriend on Tuesday evening in Villa Bellini, the city park in the middle of the historic center of Catania.

Suddenly, the two were surrounded by seven young men, harassed and then dragged to a public toilet in the park. According to police, the girl was raped there by two of the men in the presence of her boyfriend. The girl’s boyfriend was first beaten and then held down by the other five men.

“We tried to run away, but they held us,” the girl later told police, according to La Repubblica newspaper. She begged the perpetrators not to hurt her and kept shouting “basta”. Only after about half an hour did she and her friend manage to free themselves and escape.

In the nearby Via Etnea, Catania’s main shopping street, they called passers-by for help and alerted the carabinieri. The girl was taken to a hospital.

Came to Italy illegally from 2021

Based on the information provided by the two victims, the seven suspected perpetrators were all identified and arrested in the following days. In two comparisons, both the girl and her friend recognized most of them. DNA traces of one of the alleged rapists were also found on the girl’s clothing.

The detainees are Egyptian nationals between the ages of 15 and 19 who came to Italy illegally as boat people as of 2021. They live in shared accommodation for unaccompanied migrant children in Catania. Three of them are under the age of 18 and fall under juvenile criminal law. The home care providers previously said they had made a “completely normal impression”.

The crime in Catania is the third gang rape in Italy in just a few months. At the beginning of July last year, a young woman was also raped by seven young men in Palermo; Two months later, a sex crime against two girls aged 10 and 12 made headlines. They had apparently been abused by a total of nine young men over a long period near Naples and filmed on their mobile phones. In this case, seven of the alleged perpetrators were also minors.

Salvini calls for castration

The renewed gang rape has caused great outrage and numerous political reactions in Italy. “Given such horrors, no mercy can be shown. There is only one solution: chemical castration,” Lega boss and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini explained on social media.

The League introduced a corresponding law last fall after the two previous gang rapes. It provides the medicinal inhibition of male sex hormones in rapists. Salvini writes that he now assumes that the bill submitted by Lega will be adopted by parliament as soon as possible.

A similar law was proposed in 2018 by the Fratelli d’Italia, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. But it stayed in the drawer. (aargauerzeitung.ch)