Celebrity chef among 20 cited for Shoah survivor Segre slurs

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 27 - Italian police on Friday cited 20 people including an Italian celebrity chef for making online slurs against 92-year-old Holocaust survivor and life Senator Liliana Segre, judicial sources said on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
    The suspects including Chef Rubio have been charged by the Milan Carabinieri for insults posted on the web against Senator Segre, the sources said.
    Gabriele Rubini, 39, known professionally as Chef Rubio, is a former semi-professional Italian rugby player and television presenter for DMAX, where he hosts a cooking programme.
    The charge, for all of them, is defamation by 'telematic' means with the aggravating circumstance of religious, ethnic or racial motivations.
    Last month Segre reported 24 people including Rubini for making the latest in a string of anti-Semitic attacks on her on social media.
    Segre, said Chef Rubio had slammed her for not defending the Palestinians in her recent remarks on Israel, which he called a "fascist" state.
    Rubio accused Segre of "a deafening silence over the plight of Palestine".
    Israel Honorary Consul Marco Carrai said it was "disappointing that so many young people follow a figure who incites social hate like this chef," and added that unlike Rubio's many tattoos, the one on Segre's arm had been inscribed when she reached Auschwitz as a girl.
    Milan prosecutors opened a probe on the basis of Segre's 24 complaints, into death threats and aggravated defamation. (ANSA).