Twist in the investigation into the murder of Saman Abbas.
The brother of the 18-year-old Pakistani woman, who died in the night between 30 April and 1 May 2021 in Novellara, in the province of Reggio Emilia, goes from a fundamental witness to a potential suspect for complicity in the crime. All the statements released so far by the boy thus become unusable, putting at risk a large part of the accusation against his parents, uncle and two cousins.
The turning point came with a long and detailed order read by the president of the Court of Assizes of Reggio Emilia Cristina Beretti , at the beginning of the hearing where the young man was scheduled to be heard for the first time in a visual comparison with his father and uncle. .
The judges gave the defense time until the hearing on Tuesday 31 October, when the 18-year-old will decide whether to avail himself, as is now his right, of the right not to answer. The Court's order has already been sent to the Bologna Juvenile Prosecutor's Office (competent because in 2021 the boy was 16 years old), which will make its own assessments.
It was the defendants' defense that raised the problem at the last hearing and the Court shared some of their observations. In practice, the judges underlined that when the boy was heard as a person informed of the facts, on 12, 15 and 21 May 2021, he had to be assisted by a defender, because at that time he was being investigated by the juvenile prosecutor's office for the hypothesis of private violence (force his sister to return to Pakistan): those reports are invalid.
The statements made in the evidentiary hearing on 18 June are also unusable. Three days earlier the accusation had been dismissed, but, according to the judges of the assize, the elements against him, already present, which should have led, also to his guarantee, to be entered in the register of suspects for the main proceedings, i.e. for murder.
These elements emerged from his own statements and from wiretaps. It was he, for example, who showed his family, despite knowing what they were planning, the messages and chats between Saman and her boyfriend, which would lead to the final argument. It was he who reported that his uncle told him to go back into the house that evening so as not to be filmed by the cameras. In short, it needed to be investigated, at least as a precaution.
The defense of the accused welcomed the judges' decision with satisfaction, since the boy is the main accuser: it was he who said that his uncle Danish confessed to him that he had strangled Saman and that there had been a meeting between the relatives to plan the crime.
(Unioneonline/D)
