Sempio uses the right not to respond. But the wiretaps picked up in the car tell another story about the Garlasco crime
Andrea Sempio left the Pavia prosecutor’s office after three and a half hours. The 38-year-old, under investigation for the murder of Chiara Poggi, availed himself of the right not to respond, as his lawyers had announced the day before. By car, escorted by a judicial police vehicle, he passed through the wall of cameras and journalists without stopping. His lawyers, Liborio Cataliotti and Angela Taccia, spoke for him: «There is basically nothing new, it’s all very explainable. We are calm and clear-headed.”
On the other hand, the deputy prosecutor Stefano Civardi and the prosecutors Valentina De Stefano and Giuliana Rizza they spoke for over three hoursillustrating in detail the elements collected in an investigation that tries to rewrite the history of the Garlasco crime, that of 13 August 2007 in which Chiara Poggi, 26 years old, was found dead in the family house. A case that already has a definitive sentence: Alberto Stasi, the victim’s ex-boyfriend, who is serving 16 years confirmed by the Supreme Court.
What the wiretaps say about Garlasco
The most delicate point of the day does not concern what Sempio said in the courtroom, but what he would have said alone, in the car, without knowing he was being listened to. According to what was exclusively reported by Tg1, in the interceptions held by the prosecutor’s office Sempio spoke about the phone calls made to Poggi’s home in the days preceding the crime, suggesting that the objective was to contact Chiara, and not her brother Marco.
The version that Sempio has always supported is different: those calls, three in total, would have been a mistake. He wanted to talk to his friend Marco, he didn’t remember that he was in the mountains with his parents. Of Chiara, he has always said that he barely knows her, “by sight”, as she is his friend’s sister.
The wiretaps would tell something else. Sempio, speaking to himself, would have said that he had seen Chiara’s videos, and that he had “attempted an approach” with her. But Chiara would have replied: “I don’t want to talk to you”and would hang up. Again according to Tg1, in one of the conversations captured Sempio also reported having seen intimate videos of the victim with Alberto Stasi. Lawyer Taccia specified that during the interrogation “we were not allowed to listen to any audio” and that the receipt considered to be an alibi was not discussed. The investigations, the magistrates announced, are not yet concluded.
Marco Poggi: «I don’t believe in his guilt»
On the same day, Marco Poggi, Chiara’s younger brother and the victim of the proceedings together with her parents, was heard for around two hours in the Prosecutor’s Office. His lawyer, Francesco Compagna, stated that «having never had anything to hide, Marco answered all the questions». It was the prosecutors who showed him the wiretaps regarding Sempio.
What emerges, however, is that Marco Poggi does not believe in the guilt of his childhood friend. He would have said that he had read the transcripts of the evidentiary incident, and that the picture that emerges is different from that presented by the prosecution. The record of his testimony was classified.
What is the accusation based on?
The elements that the prosecutors illustrated to Sempio in the interrogation are those that have already partially emerged in recent weeks. The DNA on Chiara Poggi’s nails: a mixed, partial trace, compatible with the suspect’s paternal lineage, but, as Dr. Albani’s fingerprint assessment estimated, insufficient to identify “a single subject”. Science, at present, does not allow us to establish how that trace was deposited, nor when, nor whether it is above or under the nails.
Then the footprint 33found on the wall of the stairs leading to the cellar. The case of the receipt, considered a possible false alibi. Technical consultancy, including that of the pathologist Cristina Cattaneo.
A complex accusatory architecture, built on clues that add up. The defense considers them all “very explicable”. Meanwhile, magistrates continue to investigate.
