The 33-year-old Ghanaian man, arrested on Friday in Sassari and charged with kidnapping, torture, and assaulting a 22-year-old woman, remains in prison in Bancali.
The validation hearing was held today in the district prison where the defendant, represented by lawyer Massimiliano Tore, underwent questioning before Judge Gian Paolo Piana.
The man gave his version of events, claiming that the woman had stolen €600 and two cell phones from him , and stating that he hadn't tortured her. According to him , the foreigner had sought her out in an apartment in San Donato, where they had been attacked in turn.
He would have “only” kept the young woman at his house waiting for her mother to come and pick her up and the video message was to let her know how she was.
The judge didn't believe these allegations, considering the serious charges against the man to be true. He allegedly sought out the woman after the alleged thefts, beating her both in San Donato and on the street, and at her home in Vicolo Bertolinis. There, he allegedly attacked the twenty-two-year-old, using a lemon-stained belt to further inflict pain . He then sent a video to her mother, showing her daughter in critical condition, demanding the money that had allegedly been stolen. The woman's alarm led to the intervention of the Carabinieri, who rescued the young woman and arrested the 33-year-old.