Appeal process for Grillo jr, in Sassari a decision is made on the defense appeals

The second degree trial against Ciro Grillo and his three friends, convicted by the Tempio Pausania Court for the gang rape of two girls in Porto Cervo in the Grillo family's villa, on the night between 16 and 17 July 2019, has opened at the Court of Appeal of Sassari. The accused are not present in the courtroom.

The Court must address the objections presented by the defense with various appeals, including the request for the nullity of the first instance sentence because the signature of a judge who wrote it is missing from the publication of the reasons. The Court must also decide whether to proceed behind closed doors, as happened in the first instance, or to allow journalists to attend the hearings. In this sense, the request of one of the victims was filed to proceed behind closed doors, and one signed by the Orders of Journalists of Liguria and Sardinia, to allow the press to participate in the hearings in compliance with the right to freedom of the press and the truthfulness of the trial hearing.

At first instance the four young people, now 25 years old - in addition to Beppe Grillo's son, Vittorio Lauria, Edoardo Capitta and Francesco Corsiglia - were all sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for the first three and six years and six months for Corsiglia.

The latter had been convicted of gang rape but acquitted of the charge of having molested one of the two victims by taking and distributing sexual photos taken while the girl was sleeping on the sofa in the Grillo family's villa.

Now the judging panel, chaired by Gianni Delogu, is meeting in chambers to decide whether to decide immediately on the exceptions and on the request to keep the doors of the courtroom open or do so at a later time, now scheduling the next hearings.