Prosecution asks 27 years for friar

(ANSA) - Florence, September 30 - The prosecution on Friday requested a 27-year prison sentence against Father Gratien Alabi for the 2014 murder of 50-year-old Guerrina Piscaglia.
    The prosecutor said in a seven-hour closing argument that the victim was obsessed with the friar, who killed her in the course of a violent argument.
    Alabi was arrested in April 2015 on charges of murder and tampering with a corpse.
    The housewife and mother of a 22-year-old son vanished after she went to the rectory of the local church after a family lunch on the afternoon of May 1, 2014.
    Extensive police searches using dogs conducted in the surrounding countryside failed to turn up any trace of Piscaglia, who lived in the hamlet of Ca' Raffaello in Arezzo province.
    Prosecutors later placed Alabi, a Congolese national, under investigation on suspicion of kidnapping and possible murder after he told a TV show about missing persons that Piscaglia had told him she was pregnant and that he was the father.
    Alabi denies having had sex with Piscaglia.
    A search of the friar's home, car, and belongings reportedly turned up a series of photos of nuns in a state of undress on his computer.
    A Romanian prostitute reportedly told police Alabi was one of her habitual clients, paying her 500 euros per session.