Garlasco case: Sempio's father states "My son was at home with me the morning of the murder"
Andrea Sempio's father reiterates to Tg1 his son's innocence, as the 39-year-old shop assistant is under investigation for the murder of Chiara Poggi. The legal team will file their initial expert reports by the end of May.
Sempio's defence: expert reports forthcoming and defamation claims by Chiara Poggi's cousins
Giuseppe Sempio, father of Andrea Sempio — the 39-year-old shop assistant under investigation for the murder of Chiara Poggi on 13 August 2007 — has stated to Tg1 that his son was with him that morning. "My son was at home with me," Giuseppe Sempio said. "He did not kill Chiara Poggi, he had nothing to do with it. This is a cowardly act. I don't know by whom."
According to ANSA Cronaca, the father added that his son had then travelled the route to Vigevano, documented by photographs. "There is no need to look him in the eye: he was at home with me," he clarified, ruling out any involvement of Andrea in the crime.
The moves of Sempio's legal team
Andrea Sempio's solicitors, Liborio Cataliotti and Angela Taccia, will file their initial expert reports within the timeframe of 20 days from notification of the notice concluding the investigation, therefore by the end of May. The solicitors will also assess whether to submit their client for interrogation: Sempio has consistently maintained his innocence in the crime.
The expert reports cover several fronts: one psychological assessment, one aimed at "clarifying the poorly intelligible audio of the environmental wiretaps" — the so-called "soliloquies" — and a rebuttal to the analysis of bloodstains at the crime scene, BPA, to reconstruct the dynamics of the murder. A supplementary fingerprint examination of "fingerprint 33" is also planned, found on the wall of the stairs at the foot of which Chiara Poggi's body was discovered. According to the public prosecutors, that fingerprint would have been left by Sempio's "wet hand" as he leaned against the wall.
For the Garlasco murder, Alberto Stasi, Chiara's boyfriend at the time, was definitively convicted and is approaching the end of serving his 16-year sentence.
The defamation claims of Chiara's cousins
Added to the case is a parallel matter involving Chiara Poggi's cousins, twins Paola and Stefania Cappa. Their solicitors have turned to the Milan magistracy to establish any violations of professional or ethical duties by those who participated in what they describe as a "defamatory campaign" against them. This was reported by Antonio Marino, one of the solicitors for the Cappa family.
Approximately one hundred complaints have already been filed for insinuations by journalists, bloggers and YouTubers, directed in particular at the two sisters. Stefania Cappa has decided to also report solicitor Antonio De Rensis, Stasi's defence lawyer, a correspondent for the television programme "Le Iene" and former Carabinieri marshal of Pavia Francesco Marchetto. Among the offences alleged is "incitement to commit crimes aimed at defamation and slander".
The complaint, entrusted to public prosecutor Antonio Pansa, was filed by Stefania Cappa using the results of investigative activity carried out by a private company, engaged already in the autumn. Stefania Cappa's solicitors would also contest aspects of fraud and obstruction of justice in the proceedings. Transcripts of a recording of a conversation between correspondents from "Le Iene" and a journalist would have been attached to the complaint.
"The incredible fact," explained solicitor Marino, "is that a picture of suspicion absolutely without foundation has been systematically and repeatedly fuelled, even in contradiction with the documentary and declarative evidence already gathered."
Source: ANSA Cronaca