The hearing at the Court of Assizes of Appeal in Cagliari for Igor Sollai, sentenced in the first instance to life imprisonment with one year of daytime isolation for the murder of Francesca Deidda, has been set for March 20 .
Court President Giovanni Lavena set the hearing for 9:30 a.m., summoning the parties, the victim's brother Andrea Deidda, represented by Gianfranco Piscitelli, and his uncles, represented by Pamela Marianna Piras, Elisabetta Magrini, and Roberto Pusceddu.
Defense lawyers Carlo Demurtas and Laura Pirarba, who have appealed the first-instance sentence, are aiming to reduce the sentence for their client .
"As we expected, the Court has set the date for the appeal hearing very quickly," the lawyers commented. " We will continue to meet with our client in prison to further explore the issues addressed in the appeal , so we can prepare and potentially supplement the arguments presented. As anticipated in the previous phases, we have contested the existence of all the alleged aggravating circumstances , and we will request that the sentence be reduced accordingly."
The defense's goal is to rule out premeditation and the aggravating circumstances of cruelty and impaired defense. It also seeks to recognize the mitigating circumstances related to the defendant's procedural conduct , which, by facilitating the filing of the prosecutor's file at the beginning of the trial, ensured the expeditiousness of the first-instance proceedings.
According to the defense's reconstruction , Sollai did not plan the femicide that took place on May 10, 2024, in San Sperate. The crime, the lawyers maintain, occurred during an argument at the couple's home, where the man allegedly struck the 42-year-old woman on the head with a sharp object, causing her death . He then hid her body along the Vecchia Orientale road, near the Roman bridge leading to San Vito.
The defendant's reticence during the investigation did not play in his favor: Sollai tried to deny any involvement in the woman's death until, nailed by the evidence, he confessed.
