ITALY
L'Unione Sarda
Continua a dichiararsi innocente il frate cappuccino accusato, insieme al suo segretario Antonio Gaudio, di aver violentato una suora. Questa mattina si è tenuta la prima udienza del processo, già aggiornato al prossimo 9 aprile
''Io sono in galera perché ho difeso i bambini e i poveri”. Sono queste le poche parole rilasciate da padre Fedele Bisceglia durante una pausa della prima udienza del processo che lo vede imputato per violenza sessuale. Secondo l’accusa, il frate, insieme al suo segretario Antonio Gaudio, avrebbe abusato di una suora.
[translation]
Father Fedele: "They want to sell me as it was done with Jesus"
The Capuchine friar continues to proclaim his innocence from the charge of having raped a nun together with his secretary, Antonio Gaudio. The first day of the trial was this morning and it was adjourned to April 9. "I'm in jail because I defended the children and the poor". These are the few words said by Father Fedele Bisceglia during a pause of the first hearing of the process in which he was charged for sexual violence. According to the allegations, the friar, together with his secretary Antonio Gaudio, abused sexually a nun.
This morning the trial began at the Tribunal of Cosenza but it has already been adjourned to the next April 9. The phase assigned to the debate, as it was requested by the plaintiff's lawyer, will take place beyond closed doors. "The request made by the nun - said her lawyer Ms. Marina Pasqua - is made according to the law, which in case of sexual violence allows the respect of the privacy of the offended party". That request was shared by the lawyer of the Anti- Violence Center, which had been found by the same Father Fedele, "in order to respect the privacy of the woman-nun who made the accusation". The priest didn't agree with that decision by saying: " This trial is proceeding well but for the fact they want to make it beyond closed doors, we instead want to make it openly", he underlined. " I'm innocent. Some people want to sell me as it was done with Jesus Christ . But we always must say the truth. I'm in jail because I defended the children and the poor of the Pope John's Institute". According to Father Fedele there exists a conspiracy: "The attachment to money and arrogance are at the basis of this plot. I deeply trust the magistrates and I'll always love my Order because I never committed that sin, I even never thought of it". The clergyman was today wearing a cassock but not a frock. The Capuchine Order in fact had already expelled him.
At the entrance of the Tribunal in Cosenza, some supporters held some banners in defense of the priest: "Free Father Fedele, the slanderers in jail" and also " Hands off the Oasis, hands off from Cosenza".
Meanwhile today was rejected the preliminary request made by the defense to shift the trial to the city of Salerno. It will be a very exacting trial with 140 witnesses both belonging to the plaintiff and to the defendant. The judges accepted all the witnesses notified by the two parties while some documental evidence was accepted with reservation, waiting for the outcome of the interrogations of the related witnesses.