Milan, 18 Dec. (LaPresse) – Marco Poggi's lawyer, Francesco Compagna, requested today during the preliminary hearing that Alberto Stasi ‘leave the courtroom because he is neither the victim nor the suspect’ in the new investigation into the Garlasco murder. Judge Daniela Garlaschelli rejected the request, branding it ‘irrelevant and belated’ both because it was presented during the hearing and because it arrived six months after the start of the preliminary hearing, accepting Stasi as a “third party” in the proceedings. Andrea Sempio's lawyers, Liborio Cataliotti and Angela Taccia, noted the strangeness of the presence in the courtroom of the definitively convicted man, but did not object. Stasi remained silent in the courtroom and was assisted by his long-standing lawyer Giada Bocellari, while his solicitor Antonio De Rensis waited outside the courtroom, having been excluded from the preliminary hearing hearings since last May. The issue was raised again by Domenico Aiello, solicitor for former deputy Mario Venditti. The Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that the preliminary hearing must take place in chambers with the “necessary participation” of the public prosecutor, the suspect's defence counsel and the “right” of the victim's defence counsel to participate. Suspects and victims have the “right to attend” when a “witness” or “other person” is being examined. In other cases, “authorisation from the judge” is required.
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