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CRIME

Rape suspect arrested after bumping into victim

A man accused of brutally raping a transwoman at knife-point in northern Italy has been arrested after his victim bumped into him weeks later.

Published: 13 August 2015 12:15 CEST
Rape suspect arrested after bumping into victim
The alleged attacker has now been arrested. Police car photo: Shutterstock

The suspect, a 33-year-old man from Ghana, allegedly threatened the victim, a 45-year-old transwoman, with a knife on July 19th, Corriere della Sera reported.

He then reportedly forced her down a dark alleyway in the Ospizio neighbourhood of the northern city of Reggio Emilia where he beat her, pushed her to the ground, and raped her. Every time the victim cried out he punched her in the face.

After raping her he then took her mobile phone, rings and handbag and disappeared.

The victim managed to reach a bar where she alerted police. She was then treated at the Santa Maria Nuova hospital.

Around twenty days later, the woman bumped into her aggressor and contacted police.

The man was then arrested. He is accused of aggravated robbery, sexual abuse and grevious bodily harm.

CRIME

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

Italy is conducting more investigations into alleged fraud of funds from the EU post-Covid fund and has higher estimated losses than any other country, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said.

Published: 8 April 2024 17:05 CEST
Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

The EPPO reportedly placed Italy under special surveillance measures following findings that 179 out of a total of 206 investigations into alleged fraud of funds through the NextGenerationEU programme were in Italy, news agency Ansa reported.

Overall, Italy also had the highest amount of estimated damage to the EU budget related to active investigations into alleged fraud and financial wrongdoing of all types, the EPPO said in its annual report published on Friday.

The findings were published after a major international police investigation into fraud of EU recovery funds on Thursday, in which police seized 600 million euros’ worth of assets, including luxury villas and supercars, in northern Italy.

The European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.

READ ALSO: ‘It would be a disaster’: Is Italy at risk of losing EU recovery funds?

Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans – but there have long been warnings from law enforcement that Covid recovery funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.

2023 was reportedly the first year in which EU financial bodies had conducted audits into the use of funds under the NextGenerationEU program, of which the Recovery Fund is part.

The EPPO said that there were a total of 618 active investigations into alleged fraud cases in Italy at the end of 2023, worth 7.38 billion euros, including 5.22 billion euros from VAT fraud alone.

At the end of 2023, the EPPO had a total of 1,927 investigations open, with an overall estimated damage to the EU budget of 19.2 billion euros.

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