“I beg you, I beg you, don’t hurt me… Please let me go.” These were the words spoken by a 13-year-old girl before she was gang-raped in a public toilet in front of her boyfriend in Catania, on the Italian island of Sicily, last week, according to a report Daily mail.
Seven boys aged between 15 and 19 brutally raped the victim for half an hour, while the others arrested her boyfriend and forced him to watch the moment. The pair managed to free themselves and escape, immediately alerting authorities, who managed to catch the group within 24 hours.
According to the newspaper, the suspected Egyptian nationals arrived in Italy by boat as illegal immigrants, but were given temporary residence permits because Italian law does not allow the deportation of minors.
The group was detained after DNA tests confirmed that at least one of the minors had sexually assaulted the girl. The group member was reportedly concerned about his friends’ actions and therefore confessed to the authorities about committing the crime.
The news of the attack left no one indifferent. Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister, called for chemical castration of criminals. “Don’t talk to me about ‘tolerance’ or ‘mistake’. In the face of such horror, there can be no mercy, but only one cure: chemical CASTRATION,” the politician said on the social network X.
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni also promised that “justice will prevail.”
The incident has sparked a new controversy over immigration policy in Italy, which, according to Daily mail There was a 50% increase in the number of illegal immigrants disembarked last year compared to 2022, according to the Home Office.