Murder of 13-year-old Hazem in Milan: nine-year sentence, aggravating factor for victim's young age excluded
A 28-year-old Cuban man convicted of nine years and four months in prison for the killing of thirteen-year-old Hazem Ahmed in Milan. The judge excluded the aggravating factor of the victim's young age.
Nine years for Hazem Ahmed's death: judge excludes aggravating factor of victim's young age
Randi Martinez Despaigne, a 28-year-old Cuban man, has been sentenced to nine years and four months in prison for the murder of Hazem Ahmed, 13, which occurred in Viale Vittorio Veneto in Milan in May of last year. This is reported by ANSA Cronaca, which reviewed the sentencing reasons issued on 4 June by preliminary hearing judge Francesca Ballesi of Milan's Court.
The sentence, calculated with the one-third reduction provided for by the abbreviated procedure, takes into account mitigating circumstances recognised in the defendant's favour, who is being defended by lawyer Lamberto Rongo. However, the judge dismissed the aggravating factor linked to the victim's young age, describing it as an "excusable error".
In her sentencing reasons, Ballesi describes Hazem as a boy one metre and eighty centimetres tall, weighing 86 kilogrammes, with "a physicality" that was attributable, "quite clearly, more easily" to an adult "than to a boy of only thirteen years old". The judge found that the defendant "was not aware, during the commission of the criminal act, of the victim's actual age, assuming that he was of legal age".
Supporting this assessment, according to the sentencing reasons, is the fact that Martinez Despaigne "had no relationship of any kind" with the 13-year-old and therefore could not have known his actual age. The aggravating factor, the judge explained, requires "a coefficient of concrete foreseeability regarding the victim's actual age, which is not evident" in the case in question.
The events date back to an afternoon in May: the victim was involved in an altercation that occurred at the culmination of a drug transaction. Hazem died after two weeks of hospitalisation following a serious wound to his side and a perforated lung caused by multiple stab wounds. The arrest of Martinez Despaigne occurred at the end of an investigation by the Carabinieri, coordinated by prosecutor Francesca Crupi.
The boy's family members — including his parents and siblings, represented by lawyer Francesco Egidi — have protested against the sentence.
Source: ANSA Cronaca