The story of the two American female students who reported being raped by two carabinieri on duty in Florence on the night of Sept. 6 was “extremely probable,” and the two Americans, 19 and 21 years old, are not “scheming,” said Judge Mario Profeta at the preliminary hearing.
Either Monday or Tuesday, Profeta is expected decide on the date of the probative hearing requested by the public prosecutor investigating the case, Ornella Galeotti, to record the deposition of the victims. The two women, who have returned to the United States, may testify on Nov. 10, in a teleconference if they are not able to go back to Italy.
The first request for probationary hearing was rejected due to a technical issue raised by the defense lawyers of the two carabinieri. In the special order, the judge recalls the story — as the local newspapers reported it — and defines “the hypothesis that sexual intercourse was consumed against the two girls’ will, or without any conscious and perceptible consensus from them,” is extremely probable.
The document also records the transcript of the first phone call to the police, which occurred at 3:48 a.m. on Sept. 7: “Come and pick us up. Raped by the police. Police car. The house…” And the reconstruction of the detailed narrative of the rapes, confirmed by the two other girls who were living with the victims, who had found them in tears.
However, according to the preliminary hearing judge, it is not necessary to put the two carabinieri on leave for one year, as requested by the public prosecutor, since the suspension of their weapons is believed to be enough at the moment, and “the international clamor of the affair precludes the hypothesis of a return of the two suspects to service.”
