Six Nigerian migrants have been convicted of gang raping a 25-year-old woman at the CARA asylum center in the southern Italian city of Bari in 2017.
Olatunde Opaleye, 38 Uche Oliver, 22, Henry Sule, 26, Semiu Oguntade, 22, Emmanuel Ohenhen, 23, and Otaniyen Sunday, 35, were all handed prison terms ranging from five to nine years by an Italian court earlier this month, ANSA news reports.
Bari police officers who conducted investigations alongside prosecutors say the 25-year-old victim was raped and trafficked while she was still in Libya and then again once she made it to Italy, where the perpetrators threated to kill her if she didn’t follow their commands.
Some of the defendants in the case are said to be among the 32 suspects who are believed by investigators to be part of a Nigerian mafia clan that operated out of the CARA asylum center in Bari.
The group is said to have trafficked in illegal prostitution.