The Ministry of Justice will send inspectors to the Court of Turin to carry out checks on the case of a 40-year-old Bangladeshi man released from custody after two nights in prison. The man is accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl in the minimarket where he worked as a shop assistant, in the Madonna di Campagna district.
The announcement was made by Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, who stressed that the judge’s decision falls fully “within the scope of the autonomy and independence of the judiciary” and that the Government cannot interfere in the assessments made by the preliminary investigations judge (Gip). At the same time, he added, “given the exceptional nature of the case and the social alarm it has caused, I have ordered the dispatch of inspectors to gather all useful information.”
The 40-year-old had been arrested and taken to Turin’s Lorusso e Cutugno prison. The public prosecutor had requested that he remain in custody, but after about 48 hours the Gip ordered his release. According to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the judge’s assessment took into account the man’s lack of previous convictions, his cooperative attitude during questioning, and the fact that he had expressed remorse.
Meloni herself weighed in sharply on the case. “The police did their duty, and did it very well, in just a few hours. The Prosecutor’s Office requested the toughest measure. The whole chain worked. And then a ruling comes along that breaks it in forty-eight hours,” the premier wrote on social media, noting that the Government cannot intervene in judicial decisions and can only act, within its own remit, through ministerial inspectors.
The prime minister then expressed her solidarity with the 13-year-old girl and her family, once again raising the issue of security and the enforcement of the law.
Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) has also mobilized over the case, organizing a flash mob in Turin on Tuesday, September 1. The party’s deputy floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Augusta Montaruli, criticized the decision to release the man and called for authorities to consider, for safety reasons, shutting down the business where the alleged incidents took place.
The ministerial inspectors’ investigation will now have to determine the aspects falling under the ministry’s jurisdiction, while upholding the principle of judicial autonomy and independence reiterated by Nordio himself.
