The Florentine publishes this statement released by the Olsen family attorney Avv. Michele Capecchi:
Tomorrow (April 29, 2016) at the courthouse of Florence the lawyers who defend and represent Mr. Cheik Diaw, the suspected killer of Ashley Olsen, will discuss an appeal before a closed chamber of council to request, for the second time in a month, their client to be released from jail (probably requesting home detention) while the investigation is still ongoing.
This is the Tribunale del Riesame, which is a special procedure where the judges will not decide if he is guilty or not but whether to maintain his arrest and imprisonment before and during the trial, which is expected to begin in the next few months. From a judiciary point of view, the hearing will still be important because the judges, in order to confirm the measure of the arrest (during the investigation), will have to explain why they believe that it is better to keep Mr. Diaw in jail, and maybe produce new evidence that the police has already collected against the prosecuted.
Something similar happened last month, when Mr. Diaw’s lawyers submitted the same request, asking to convert imprisonment into home detention/electronic monitoring). In that instance, the Olsen family lawyer, Avv. Michele Capecchi, submitted a memorandum to the court with several arguments against their request, as too did the public prosecutor. In the end, the judge dismissed the request by Mr. Diaw’s lawyers, arguing that Mr. Diaw’s “confession” was full of inconsistencies and there were risks that would be involved in releasing him (including the risk of committing other crimes of the same type).
These are the words of the Judge who decided to keep Mr. Diaw in prison approximately a month ago.
“A carico di Cheik Diaw pesano un quadro indiziario ‘grave e univoco’ e un concreto pericolo di fuga, dovuto soprattutto alla sua situazione di immigrato irregolare, privo di permesso di soggiorno, di un lavoro regolare e, spiega sempre il giudice, ‘dedito all’uso di sostanze stupefacenti. Del suo comportamento dopo l’omicidio, colpisce la mancanza di una presa di coscienza di quanto commesso e “l’assenza di pentimento”.
[Serious and univocal evidence weigh on Mr. Cheik Diaw and there is a tangible danger of flight, due in particular to his situation as an illegal immigrant, with no permit to stay, no regular work and, as the judge also commented, ‘a regular drug user’. His behaviour following the murder demonstrated a lack of conscience for his actions and a ‘ lack of remorse’.]
Tomorrow’s decision, in this case, will be even more important: if Mr. Diaw is released the news will have considerable media resonance (the international press and those following the case will wonder how it is possible that in Italy an illegal immigrant, with no documents, no visa, and someone who has confessed to some degree can be set free before the beginning of his trial); if the request is refused, it will be important to read the judge’s reasoning, since it may reveal new aspects of the investigation that the public prosecutor might choose to use in the actual trial.
