Italy’s populist Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has called for the “chemical castration” of three men who allegedly filmed themselves raping a 19-year-old American tourist in Catania.
The three Italian men, Roberto Mirabella, 20, Salvatore Castrogiovanni, 19, and Agatino Spampinato, also 19, were arrested on March 21st for the gang rape attack, said to have occurred on March 15th, Il Giornale reports.
According to investigators, the three men met up with the American teen at a bar and offered her a drink. They allegedly suggested moving to another bar and once outside forced her into a car.
After driving to a secluded area, the three men are accused of preventing the teen from calling the police and taking turns sexually assaulting her and filming the ordeal on their mobile phones.
Salvini, who also serves as Minister of the Interior, was direct in his condemnation of the attack and the alleged attacker,s saying, “For the raping worms of Catania, who have raped a tourist, no discount: a certainty of punishment and chemical castration!”
Earlier this week, Minister for Public Administration Giulia Bongiorno submitted an amendment to a bill to make the use of chemical castration for rapists an option for the courts.
“We have submitted an amendment to the Chamber to insert the possibility of subordinating the suspension of the sentence to a therapeutic or pharmacological inhibitory treatment of the libido,” she said.
“The League party has been supporting this measure for some time; indeed it is one of the reasons, along with ‘legitimate defence’, that has brought me closer to them,” she added, referring to the populist party’s push for stronger self-defence laws.
Salvini recently passed a law on the legitimate use of force against home invaders, who will now be allowed to use force against those attempting to break into their homes.
The populist party leader has previously gone on record stating he would like to see Italy’s gun laws liberalised and previously even offered to pay the legal costs of people prosecuted for defending their homes.