Alleged assault in Senator Silvestro's office: Prosecutor's Office requests case closed

The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office has requested the preliminary investigations judge to dismiss the case against Forza Italia Senator Francesco Silvestro, who is under investigation for sexual assault. The alleged incidents date back to February 2025 and allegedly occurred inside the politician's parliamentary office.

The news was announced by lawyer Teresa Manente, head of the legal department of the Differenza Donna association and legatee of the injured party.

The knot of legal terms

The decision by the Rome Prosecutor's Office was not based on a merit-based assessment of the veracity of the facts, but rather on a formal obstacle. The request is based on the lack of admissibility: the woman, an entrepreneur, filed a formal complaint after the legal deadline, more than a year after the alleged incidents.

"The request for dismissal is based exclusively on a question of admissibility and does not contradict, on the merits, the victim's story," clarifies lawyer Manente.

The elements collected by the magistrates

According to the woman's defense, the investigation documents contain evidence deemed consistent and significant. This includes the testimony of a person who met the woman shortly after the events, who described her as being deeply distraught and in tears.

The Prosecutor's Office itself highlighted that the failure to immediately and fully reconstruct the abuse suffered in the moments following the incident should not be interpreted as an indication of the injured party's unreliability, given the psychological repercussions found.

The story and the political background

The affair stems from a business contact: the businesswoman had been put in touch with the senator by a friend of his, a Carabiniere, to arrange a wine shipment worth approximately €7 for the inauguration of a residence in Capri. The order was never formalized.

The woman later stated that she had to undertake therapy and that she had been pressured and dissuaded from filing a complaint by the soldier involved in the incident.

Francesco Silvestro, 55, began his political career in 2000 in Arzano, in the province of Naples. Elected to the Senate for Forza Italia in 2022, he had previously been at the center of an extortion investigation, which also ended in dismissal.