Italian judicial authorities
have said they will look into the case of a trial against a man
accused of raping a seven-year-old girl 20 years ago that timed
out because of the statute of limitations, allowing him to go
free.
The Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), the judiciary's
self-governing body, said it would examine the case on Friday.
CSM chief Giovanni Legnini said "we will see what happened,
such cases risk undermining the authority of the justice
system".
The prosecutor general of the supreme Cassation Court of
appeal, Pasquale Ciccolo, also said he would "try to understand"
into what happened.
The man was found guilty of raping his partner's daughter and
given 12 years in jail at the first-instance trial in
Alessandria in 1997.
The Turin judge who pronounced the case timed out on Monday
said "this is a case in which we should apologise to the Italian
people".
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