The first line of proceedings on sexual violence committed on New Year's Eve in Piazza del Duomo in Milan, on New Year's Eve 2022, ended with a conviction.

The fifth criminal section of the Court of Milan imposed 5 years and 10 months of imprisonment on Abdallah Bouguedra, a 22-year-old from Turin, who ended up on trial for gang rape. According to the reconstruction of the investigators, he would have been part of the "pack" that, during the celebrations for the arrival of 2022 under the Madonnina of the Duomo of Milan, abused a 19-year-old girl, who was in the company of a friend, on the corner with Via Mazzini, together with two other young people, 20-year-old Abdel Fatah and 19-year-old Mahmoud Ibrahim, but they chose the trial with an abbreviated rite. For the two defendants Mahmoud Ibrahim (6 years required) and Abdel Fatah (4 years), the sentence before the gup, Marta Pollicino, is expected for Thursday, May 4.

From the investigation, coordinated by the deputy Letizia Mannella and the prosecutor Alessia Menegazzo and conducted by the Milan Mobile Squad, it emerged that a dozen girls were surrounded by a "human wall", a "pack" of young people who forced them to suffer abuse. The prosecutor had asked for 6 years in prison also for robbery, a crime for which the defendant was acquitted.

The accused, under house arrest, has always proclaimed his innocence. "This is justice in Italy, mine is not the first case of maljustice," said Bouguedra, who was present in the courtroom at the time of the verdict being read. The young man reiterated, speaking to reporters, that he was "absolutely" part of the pack of attackers. The defense, represented by lawyer Giuseppe Boccia, announced an appeal.

The reconstruction of the facts

The court set a provisional amount of 30,7 euros for the victim and compensation of 60,<> for the Municipality of Milan, both civil parties in the process. The sentence, pending the reasons in <> days, in fact accepts the thesis of the supported in court by Alessia Menegazzo who in her indictment reconstructed the "long and articulated investigation" on the "brutal aggressions" and in particular that against the couple of friends, surrounded and attacked, near McDonald's.

That evening the victim was in the company of a peer when she was approached by a group of boys from Turin, who sought an approach for a long time: a few phrases of circumstance, the contact exchanged on Instagram, then the attempt, which proved useless, to get away. There is a video taken with a mobile phone showing a boy with hair with blonde tips and a red vest. The victims "recognize it both in the immediacy of the facts and in the evidentiary incident. The two girls surrounded and harassed remembered very well that boy of Moroccan origin with hair with blonde tips. The only video on file depicts the defendant at the crime scene," the prosecution argued.