An appeals court in Milan has
acquitted a former trade unionist of sexual assault on the
grounds that his alleged victim, a hostess, had an estimated 20
to 30 seconds to react and could have escaped the alleged
violence, according to the motivation of the sentence published
on Tuesday.
The motivation said that "the defendant did not carry out any
form of violence" that could put the alleged victim in a
"situation where it was absolutely impossible to avoid the
conduct" and that she had a window of "20-30 seconds" that would
have "enabled her to escape".
The alleged victim, an air hostess, had contacted the unionist
at Milan's Malpensa airport in 2018 over a trade-union dispute.
On June 24, the Milan appeals court cleared the former trade
unionist of sexual assault, upholding a first-instance verdict,
stating that the hostess took too long to react to his alleged
assault.
The man, former CISL official Raffaele Meola, was first cleared
of the alleged assault in 2020.
A women's group assisting the alleged victim called the sentence
a "disgrace that takes us back 30 years" and said they would
appeal to the supreme Court of Cassation.
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