Haitham Mahmoud Abdelshafi Ahmed Masoud in front of Milan's Duomo cathedral
(Corriere della Sera)
A 31-year-old Egyptian refugee is charged with rape in Milan. The suspect arrived at Lampedusa in May as a refugee from Egypt. He then dropped from the radar until he showed up in Milan. He now sits in a Milan jail awaiting trial for a rape in August.
This past week, hundreds of more migrants were brought into the Italian port of Lampedusa, many of whom have been transferred to a reception center at Porto Empedocle-the same path taken by this Egyptian earlier this year. (Video translation is pending.) How many of those hundreds of new arrivals will commit similar crimes?
The below article from today's Corriere della Sera is translated by Fousesquawk.
Milan, Rape at Cascina Gobba: The selfie in front of the Duomo that brought down the rapist
-Cesare Giuzzi
The Egyptian, 31 years old, had landed at Lampedusa in May. On July 7, he was photographed in Milan: The image, thanks to facial recognition software, led to his identification. Then the DNA confirmation.
Two months (he disappeared). A ghost that moves throughout Italy, from the island of Lampedusa to Milan. A path during which, Haitham Mahmoud Abdelshafi Ahmed Masoud was never checked by police. Or at least, if so, no trace was left.
The 31-year-old Egyptian, arrested for the rape of a 25-year-old worker at the San Raffaele of Milan Hospital, landed at Lampedusa between the 10-11 of May. Days in which more than 1,400 migrants arrived in a few hours. On one of those boats, there was also Masoud, who after having been transferred to the hotspot of Lampedusa, was photographed and identified with the name of "Abdelshafi Haysem Mahmoud". He said that he fled from Egypt, crossed the Mediterranean together with other co-nationalists, and fled from the repression of the Cairo government. He announced that he wanted to claim asylum. The Interior Ministry assigned him the identification code 064BSVV, a sort of provisional identity for migrants.
His traces were lost during the anti-Covid quarantine, and transfer to Porto Empedocle. In his pocket, a cell phone number which was activated 25 May at Palma di Montechiaro (Agrigento) by a 23-year-old co-nationalist. Probably, Masoud reached the capital of Lombardy by train. And thanks to the identity number, he was identified two months later at the immigration of office of Milan police HQ when he presented himself to advance his asylum request. It was 1:35 pm on Wednesday, 7 July: With a white t-shirt and gelled hair, he was photographed by the scientific police. It would be that picture, thanks to facial recognition software, "Sari", that led to his identification.
The police begin with another image, that of the Whatsapp profile associated with the telephone number that might belong to the perpetrator of the violence of 9 August when the 25-year-old (victim) was attacked at dawn and raped in a canal while walking along a path on her way to work. A selfie taken with the cell phone where Masoud, in front of the Duomo, was dressed in a black t-shirt. On 24 August, while the police, directed by Marco Cali, already suspicious of him, were monitoring him, the 31-year-old presented himself again at the immigration office to complete his asylum request. In the files, there are shots of the 31-year-old seated in the waiting room. It is here that the officers surreptitiously obtain a can and cigarette butt to compare the DNA with the traces found at the scene of the violence. A few hours later the confirmation arrives. The two genetic profiles match.
At 7 in the evening on Thursday, magistrates Letizia Mannella and Rosaria Stagnaro sign the arrest warrant. The police trace Masoud the following morning to an apartment on Via Tartini, in the periphery (of the city), where he is sleeping with ten other co-nationalists. A dormitory house where he had found hospitality and some illegal work as a laborer at a construction site thanks to "mutual aid" of other immigrants. Masoud had clean clothes, a smartphone, and the same backpack he was carrying on his shoulders the day of the violence.
The interrogation to validate the arrest was held Sunday, at San Vittorio (prison). The 31-year-old will be defended by the legal office of Eleonora Bergamini. In the 52-page indictment from the magistrates, the judge is requested to keep the 31-year-old in jail, as well as the story from the victim. "I felt myself being pushed into the ditch suddenly. My face was crushed on the pavement of the canal, I felt I was suffocating. I shouted. I begged him to stop for my two children. When he fled after the violence, I was terrified that he would return."
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