Women’s rights defenders protested outside an Italian court Monday after it emerged that two men accused of rape were cleared by female judges because the alleged victim looked “masculine”.
“For shame!” shouted about 200 demonstrators gathered at the court of Ancona in central Italy, accusing the justice system of misogyny and a “witch hunt”, according to video footage posted by Italian media.
The reasons behind the 2017 acquittal were only made public on Friday when the country’s highest court of appeal ordered a retrial, according to the Cronoche Ancona daily.
The men, both Peruvians, had initially been convicted in 2016 of raping a Peruvian woman in 2015, but the Ancona appeals court threw out the charges, saying the woman’s story was not believable.
The woman had claimed one of the men raped her while the other stood guard, after they had spiked her drink with drugs.