Ancona: In an appeals court, a trio of female judges acquitted two men of rape in 2017, agreeing to defendants’ arguments that as the woman looked like a man, they could not have been attracted to her. A retrial has now been ordered in the hearing.
After the reasoning behind the decision surfaced through the Supreme Court’s retrial order, an outrage poured in Ancona, as hundreds of people protested outside a court of appeal here.
“I read this sentence in 2017 and that’s why we referred it to the supreme court,” Cinzia Molinaro, the woman’s lawyer, was quoted as saying by the Guardian. “It was disgusting to read; the judges expressed various reasons for deciding to acquit them, but one was because the [defendants] said they didn’t even like her, because she was ugly. They also wrote that a photograph [of the woman] reflected this,” the lawyer added.
About 200 people gathered at the court of Ancona in central Italy and shouted “for shame!” and accused the Italian justice system of misogyny and a “witch hunt”, according to a local news website.
Protesters from Rebel Network, the Italian womens’ rights group that organised the protest, Tweeted: “Rape does not fulfil a desire for pleasure, but an abominable hatred and contempt for the victim. It does not depend on how feminine you are, but on the hatred inside the rapist.”
Signore Giudici, lo #stupro non soddisfa un desiderio di piacere, ma un abominevole odio e disprezzo della vittima. Lo #stupro non dipende da quanto sei femminile, ma dall’odio che anima i mostri che lo agiscono. #Ancona #Vergogna #11marzo #flashmob @MarchePride @cgil_marche
— Rebel Network (@RebelNtwk) March 11, 2019
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