The preliminary hearing for Andrea Sempio is set for February 25th

The preliminary hearing against Andrea Sempio, accused by the Pavia Prosecutor's Office of the murder of Chiara Poggi which occurred in Garlasco on 13 August 2007, will begin on February 25th. The President of the Court Enrica Bertolotto announced this in a note. The judge who will have to decide whether or not to send Sempio to trial is Luigi Umberto Riganti.

Before deciding on the request of the Pavia prosecutors to send Sempio to trial, Judge Riganti will have to resolve the issue of whether, in the absence of a review of the 16-year prison sentence imposed on Alberto Stasi, it is possible or not for the 38-year-old to proceed. On this point, his defenders, lawyers Liborio Cataliotti and Angela Taccia, believe that their client cannot be tried for the same "crime" for which Stasi (who is currently excluded from the preliminary hearing) has already been definitively deemed the one and only culprit. Therefore they will ask for the hearing to be suspended pending a judgment on the request for review that the defenders of the former Bocconi student will present in Brescia in a few days - it is not known whether the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office will do the same - and alternatively they will ask the Pavia preliminary hearing judge to raise a question of constitutionality.

The request for trial against Sempio dates back to November 3rd. The office led by the prosecutor Fabio Napoleone accused the accused of multi-aggravated voluntary homicide: Sempio would have "acted with cruelty towards the victim in consideration of the brutality of the murderous action due to the number and extent of the wounds inflicted", of which "at least 12 lesions on the skull and face". And he would have "committed the act for abject reasons, attributable to hatred" for the young woman, who was 26 years old, due to a "rejection" of his approach. Chiara's parents and brother will not take civil action.